Fixing Broken Ceramic With Gold

The meaning of kintsugi kintsukuroi gold repair art.

Fixing broken ceramic with gold.

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. As a philosophy it treats breakage and repair as part of the history of an object rather than something. Kintsugi which literally translates to joined with gold is the ancient japanese practice of mending broken ceramics with gold silver or platinum epoxy. 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.

With modern adhesives fillers paints and cold glaze it s possible to perform seamless repairs to damaged ceramic and pottery objects. 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. Japanese kintsukuroi chawan. 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.

The history of kintsugi. It is the process of taking something that is broken and to many now worthless and transforming it into a work. 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. This inspired him to find an elegant way to amend the ceramic and as a result kintsugi was born.

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. Kintsugi is a japanese art in which broken ceramics and pottery are fixed with resin and powdered gold dating back to the 15th century. 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. The first step to fix broken pottery or a ceramic object is by mending the pieces with two part epoxy adhesive.

The only way to restore such an object is by using cold materials and process.