Fixing Broken Ceramic With Gold

The meaning of kintsugi kintsukuroi gold repair art.

Fixing broken ceramic with gold.

The only way to restore such an object is by using cold materials and process. The translation from japanese of kintsugi or kintsukuroi means golden joinery or repair with gold where the gold powder is applied on lacquer some refer to it as kintsugi art with a metaphor of kintsugi life re birth or wabi sabi philosophy this technique transforms broken ceramic or pottery into beautiful. Japanese kintsukuroi chawan. As a philosophy it treats breakage and repair as part of the history of an object rather than something.

The goal of a kintsugi repair is actually to highlight the cracks and damage with a bright metallic binding agent that draws attention to the damage. With modern adhesives fillers paints and cold glaze it s possible to perform seamless repairs to damaged ceramic and pottery objects. Kintsugi 金継ぎ golden joinery also known as kintsukuroi 金繕い golden repair is the japanese art of repairing broken pottery by mending the areas of breakage with lacquer dusted or mixed with powdered gold silver or platinum a method similar to the maki e technique. It is the process of taking something that is broken and to many now worthless and transforming it into a work.

Kintsugi is a japanese art in which broken ceramics and pottery are fixed with resin and powdered gold dating back to the 15th century. Kintsugi or kintsukori dates back to the 15th century when according to legend shogun ashikaga yoshimasa broke his favorite chawan a chinese ceramic tea bowl and sent it back to china for repair it was returned and fixed but bound by ugly metal staples. This inspired him to find an elegant way to amend the ceramic and as a result kintsugi was born. Kintsugi is the japanese art of putting broken pottery pieces back together with gold built on the idea that in embracing flaws and imperfections you can create an even stronger more.

This traditional japanese art uses a precious metal liquid gold liquid silver or lacquer dusted with powdered gold to bring together the pieces of a broken pottery item and at the same time enhance the breaks. Kintsugi which literally translates to joined with gold is the ancient japanese practice of mending broken ceramics with gold silver or platinum epoxy. The history of kintsugi. Poetically translated to golden joinery kintsugi or kintsukuroi is the centuries old japanese art of fixing broken pottery rather than rejoin ceramic pieces with a camouflaged adhesive the kintsugi technique employs a special tree sap lacquer dusted with powdered gold silver or platinum.

We restore ceramic objects implementing the japanese art of broken pottery repair kintsugi kintsukuroi using 23 5k gold and lacquer or our proprietary developed process and materials with encapsulated gold effect metals this lesson is intended to show the difference between the two kintsugi implementations methods and to learn how it is done.