Japanese Broken Ceramic Art

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Japanese broken ceramic art.

The technique consists in joining fragments and giving them a new more refined aspect. 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. The name of the technique is derived from the words kin golden and tsugi joinery which translate to mean golden repair. Japanese kintsukuroi chawan.

In addition to kintsugi their skills may have included maki e a technique for painting fine gold or silver florals and landscapes onto. 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. Kintsugi is a centuries old japanese art of repairing broken pottery and transforming it into a new work of art with gold the traditional metal used in kintsugi. The artisans who would mend these broken tea bowls as well as other ceramic vessels used in tea ceremonies were japanese lacquer masters who were trained in various techniques of the lacquer arts.

Next time you drop a beloved ceramic don t worry about hiding every last crack take a cue from the japanese art of kintsugi instead. 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. 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. As a philosophy it treats breakage and repair as part of the history of an object rather than something.

Sophia is the managing editor of the make.