Japan Uses Gold To Fix Broken Ceramic

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.

Japan uses gold to fix broken ceramic.

In addition to kintsugi their skills may have included maki e a technique for painting fine gold or silver florals and landscapes onto decorative objects as well as crafting lacquer trays. It s called kintsugi 金継ぎ or kintsukuroi 金繕い literally golden kin and repair tsugi. The name of the technique is derived from the words kin golden and tsugi joinery which translate to mean golden repair. This has become a point of contention as many potters worldwide use this method to repair newly made goods that come out flawed or cracked using cheaper alternatives to real gold of course.

This lesson shows only the highlights of the. 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 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. 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.

Nothing is ever truly broken that s the philosophy behind the ancient japanese art of kintsugi which repairs smashed pottery by using beautiful seams of gold. 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. Jul 7 2020 the japanese art of repairing with gold to create a perfectly imperfect piece of beauty. However purists believe that kintsugi should only be used to repair extremely valuable antique ceramic works.

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. To celebrate bbc four s japan.