I enjoy making things with my hands and I’ve tried my hand at pottery, terrarium making, and decoupage. This is probably also why I enjoy cooking as a form of creation.

Last Saturday I tried another art form called Kintsugi. Literally translated into “golden joinery” (gin refers to gold and tsugi means to put back together), this is a Japanese art form that joins broken ceramics together using powdered gold. As a philosophy, it refers to finding beauty in imperfection. What a beautiful concept!

Of course I didn’t use real gold on Saturday as that would have been too expensive. Instead, I used powdered bronze to achieve that gold effect. I used modern materials such as epoxy glue on Saturday, but the traditional method is to use tree resin to act as a glue. That way, the finished product can actually be used to serve wet food like sashimi and sushi. Using modern materials such as epoxy means the crockery can only be used for dry food such as biscuits or just be used as a decorative item due to the poisonous nature of these synthetic glue when ingested.

The process of sanding down the broken sides to get a groove between the broken pieces is a tedious process that relies purely on manual labour. It is this process where a lot of effort comes in. You would never know the effort that goes into making kintsugi unless you had a go at it yourself! Having to use the filer to sand down the sides of this small flat certainly made me appreciate the labour that goes into making these works of art.

I like that every single item is unique in kintsugi. The way the pieces shatter is unique. The joints are unique. The way the powdered gold/bronze forms is unique. And certainly, these broken pieces take on a new life when put back together!