The manufacturing of ORIGAMI Dripper starts with the selection of soil and goes through five major processes; (1) Molding (casting or jiggering), (2) Pre-firing, (3) Glazing, (4) Firing, and (5) Inspection.

It all starts with soil-making. In this process, we knead the soil called Hakuji with a stirrer for about 6 hours, and then move it to a pressure tank to remove air bubbles in the soil. This basic operation is important because the soil gets crack during firing if it contains air bubbles.

Once the soil is ready, that's where a skilled caster comes in. He pours the soil through a small hole arranged on the mold of a dripper. This is called casting.
We have been making the dough of ORIGAMI Dripper for 40 years, and yet its thinness is surprising. So, it must be such a small hole.


The opening of the hole is only a few millimeters. If the soil is poured through a large hole, the jagged folds of the dripper will be spoiled. Soil with poor viscosity does not pass through the small hole, and conversely, watery soil does not solidify inside. That is how making this product is harder than it looks.

After the soil is poured in, he carefully removes the upper mold straight up. This requires extra care as the jagged part is damaged if it touches the mold.

The top opening is protruding, which will be smoothed out all by hand.

Carefully cleaning the surface with a brush.

He checks whether or not each of the 20 fine folds is not damaged, and sometimes shapes it by hand. The reason why one of his fingers is exposed is to know the smoothness by touching.

> This work is so detailed...!

The manufacturing is actually hard. I think such thinness and fineness of folds cannot be realized by other manufacturers!

Now we move to the process of "deburring". Everything here is done by hand as well. Deburring means the work removing thin steps generated by the surface of the upper and lower molds during casting. She polishes the rough part with clean water to make it smooth, however, the edge of the folds should not be rounded. It must be handled with care as it breaks easily by polishing.

> Is it done now?

No, there's still a lot to be done. We will conduct further inspections to see if the folds of concern throughout the process after casting are not spoiled, if deburring is enough, and so on.

Here's the process of painting the fired ORIGAMI Dripper, which is called glazing. A colored glass powder, called glaze, is applied to the surface of the pottery.

> I didn't know that the color of the pottery is made of glass powder!

The pottery is colored by firing the glass powder on the surface through an oxidation-reduction reaction.

Each piece is dipped into the glaze with avoiding color unevenness.

Keep vertical when dipping down and pulling up. The important point is to soak every piece for the same number of seconds.

The folds engraved on ORIGAMI Dripper are calculated so as to ensure the optimum extraction time for baristas when pouring over. A slight difference in the thickness of the glaze may change the extraction time and even the coffee's taste. That's why all of us are always aware of these folds.

The folds and color unevenness are checked again. Accepted pieces are gently placed on the firing table.

> You are checking them again!

Yes, it's an essential part of the process to be done absolutely carefully.

At last, the pieces are fired in a 40m-long kiln. Sudden changes in temperature will distort the form, so it will take about 30 hours.

After final inspection, ORIGAMI Dripper is finished.

The process of manufacturing ORIGAMI Dripper is fairly difficult even for the skilled workers at Koyo Toki, which makes thousands of different pottery products a year.

As a witness of the real manufacturing site, it was impressive for me that all the workers always handled the workpiece so gently as if they were touching a small animal.