Ancient Japanese art of Kintsugi (also known as Kintsukuroi) literally translates as “golden joinery”. Fixing prised and valuable porcelain is nothing short of an art form in Japan. The Japanese have been using lacquering techniques for approximately 9000 years. No wonder why this skill and art form is still valued to this day.
In today’s Oishya Inspirations series we want to show you how you can try Kintsukuroi for yourself. You will discover that Kintsugi can be both relaxing and rewarding and you don’t necessarily need to break things (although we think that’s the most relaxing part :).
To start, you will need a:
- Pottery (broken into few pieces is ideal)
- Japanese Urushi Lacquers
- Two soft paint brushes to apply Kintsugi
- Powder removal brush
- Good quality gold powder
- Plastic spatula
- Cotton ball (pure silk is the best)
- A small plate
- Rubber gloves
- Tonoko Powder,
- Water resistant sand paper.
You can get a whole kit from our shop.
Once you have some broken pottery, lay down all the materials you will need to have them at hand.
Mix urushi laquier with golden powder and gently apply around the edges of the two broken pieces and then pushed them together. Doing this paint will be pushed out a bit, creating a thin line. Allow both pieces to dry completely, it should take about 10 minutes.
Using our kit, you don’t need any glue. Urushi has a special consistency which will make pieces stick together strong. Urushi lacquer is also heatproof up to 100 to 120 Celsius so do not need to worry about treating kintsugi parts with hot water.
Remember that the gold line doesn’t have to be perfect. That’s the whole point. Kintsugi art prises imperfection.
When we were designing Kintsugi premium bone tableware, we took the inspiration from an ancient Japanese art of pottery repair. By repairing broken ceramics it was possible to give a new lease of life to pottery that could become even more refined thanks to its “scars”.
Ps. That’s why we created Kintsugi inspired tableware 🙂
The Japanese art of kintsugi teaches that broken objects are not something to hide but to display with pride and we wanted to remind that to everyone.
Good luck with crafting!
