Commissioned by a struggling enameling company, designer Makoto Koizumi proposed an enameled kettle that balanced beauty and functional simplicity. Koizumi wanted the kettle to be completely white, even though it was considered impossible to make enamel stick to the edges of a utensil. Artisan Taiichi Masabayashi had to buck 200 years of conventional wisdom. He succeeded, and the all-white enamel kettle has gone from strength to strength. It's even being sold in high-end stores in the US.