Kintsugi

I thought this was a nice way of describing Kintsugi, written on the back of the kit I bought to join my pieces of pots.

"Kintsugi ('golden joinery'), is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with lacquer dusted or mixed with powdered gold. As a philosophy, it treats breakage and repair as part of the history of an object, rather than something to disguise. The flaws are what makes it beautiful."

My friend and potter, Lara Clahane has been to Japan earlier this year. When a few of my pots had broken, I used the opportunity to ask her how to repair them using Kintsugi. She gave me some good information on what kit to buy, and I also bought some Urushi lacquer. She said she would come and spend an afternoon with me, to show me what to do with the repair.

First I was to initially sand down the edges of the pieces to be joined. She suggested a dremmel is good, but I didnt have one, so used a rasp. After this the kit said to mix the epoxy glue. It was easy to use as both sides came out at the same time when pressed. You then mixed in some gold dust into the glue and put some on both sides along the break. It set in minutes and has proved very strong.

The platters were now ready for the next stage

With this you mix epoxy putty this time with gold dust. You then (very quickly before it hardens ) apply it to the crack. In traditional wear the putty is scraped back to minimal, but this was my first attempt, so my 'sausages' were thicker! It worked a treat! Now all that was left (optional ) was to mix a bit of the gold powder with the laquer and paint over the putty with a fine brush. You can put several layers of this. I think gold dust at the putty stage is optional too. You can use either or, or both.

Lara has also prepared a tea ceremony for us....We had a tea bowl with special tea ceremony grade tea from Japan. You pour the water into the bowls from a height and it appears as a green froth when you drink it. You eat something sweet first, we had cake. Traditionally in Japan this is green modi (sticky rice cake) filled with azuki bean paste. Then you down it in one!

Japan has a lot of earthquakes, so the repairs are needed quite often. A Makie-shi is a repairer.

Another interesting word is Nekowaride. Neko means cat, de or te is hand, and 'wari'is close to 'warus' which means bad or naughty. Its the cat knocking the pot off the side! How useful!

These were the results. Such an enjoyable afternoon, I feel confident that I could do this again.