This Japanese Technique For Repairing Broken Pottery Gives Food For Thought
Broken pottery is very much like the fragmented parts of our lives. It’s hard to put the pieces back together because we all feel like a broken cup or plate after the disappointment, loss, or deception we experience.
This broken item can regain its beauty if we know how to repair it properly. Most of us would fix this bowl using glue.
However, the Japanese have long practiced art, which is not only a technique for repairing pottery, but also a philosophy from which we can learn.
We are, of course, talking about kintsug, or “golden fix”. This is an awesome strategy that we can use to create a new, more beautiful, and stronger object that reflects the psychological dimension we are all familiar with: perseverance and perseverance.
The art of repairing broken pottery, kintsugi
A broken object tells a story. Maybe the dish fell to the floor by accident because your mind was somewhere else, far from reality. Maybe part of your tea set broke when you laughed with friends as you shared a moment of happiness.
Every crack in porcelain refers to a moment in your life. Throwing away pottery is unnecessary. It would be like rejecting an injured animal or a couple refusing to compromise after a dispute.
All of this fits with the Japanese kintsugi philosophy, which is already known around the world and which pleases many people.
Let’s take a closer look at this exercise.
Kintsug’s source
To understand this particular kind of technology, we must travel back in time to the end of the 1400s, the Shogunian era.
Ashikaga Yoshimasa was the Japanese Shogun who started this millennial tradition. After his favorite teacups broke, he decided to send them to China for repair. Soon the cups were returned to him so that they contained very considerable traces of metal, which diminished the beauty of these cups.
Shogun was very annoyed by the result and asked the artisans to save the cups. They did it only by sealing the broken pieces with golden paste to create a different, more beautiful and more powerful object.
The shogun was pleased.
How to use a kintsug for your broken porcelain
We are sure that at this stage, kintsugi technology has taken over.
If you’re curious, like this technique, and want to try it with some broken cups or plates, we recommend doing so. It’s a lot simpler than you think!
What do you need
- A substance used to repair ceramics (you can find a variety of craft shops, for example, instant glue is suitable)
- Synthetic gold powder (you can even use gold glitter)
- Broken container
- Child and / or toothpick
How to do it
- Start by mixing the repair agent with gold powder. You can do this with a piece of cardboard, a container or a cup. The amount you need always depends on the pieces you need to repair and combine.
- Using a toothpick or spatula, apply this mixture to the edges of the broken pieces.
- Then connect them and press together for a few moments.
- After that, you can see how the golden line shapes the “scar” in the porcelain, the wound that now forms a much more beautiful as well as unique item.
- Finally, you just have to let it dry for a few hours, and then it’s done.
Beauty is in the story told by the object, not in the object itself
Kintsugi technology can be perfectly applied to our own lives.
Toughness is a mental tendon that acts almost like a golden putty, joining our broken pieces together. It also motivates us to close our wounds and in turn learn from them.
We need to stop feeling ashamed of mistakes, moccasins, and evaporated dreams. Instead, we need to be able to see the beauty in the path we have taken in our lives it has helped us become because of what we are now: mature. We are wiser beings who have learned to “shine” from adversity.
Broken pottery, repaired with kintsug technology, also has a great ability: it is stronger. Cups and plates no longer break so easily. Also, people who are known to be tenacious and who have also closed their wounds with gold are not as weak as they used to be.
