Today, I want to introduce the art of KINTSUGI.

Translated from Japanese to English, we get 金継ぎ, meaning “golden joinery/repair.

Kintsugi is a process of repairing broken ceramics using urushi and 24 kt gold dust. The repairs are evident rather than hidden, drawing attention to the fractures. Like pottery itself, it is an art form that takes much practice and trial and error.

On a philosophical level, kintsugi embraces the broken, acknowledging that nothing in this world is perfect, that fractures are intrinsic marks of existence and impermanence. But why use gold to fill in fractures? Watch this video, and enjoy.

http://nijinoie.hamazo.tv/e7932563.html

And why did I chose this particular concept to share? More or less, I ask each of us to examine what it is that brings us to shape and collaborate with clay. Whether you come to the wheel or hand-building table to add a little beauty to your home, to work relaxation into your day or week, to learn something new, to participate in an ancient art form, or for something more personal, the form that emerges before you is but one part of a larger continuum.

For every crooked handle you pull, or wonky pot you try to center, or tumbler that decides to take a tumble off the bat, there is beauty to be found in the evidence of these endeavors, however unexpected or frustrating they may be in the moment.

Auguste Elder

These mishaps or scars are narrative potentialities. At the very least they reveal where and what your hands were doing in relationship to gravity. On the other end of the spectrum, these bumps and chips, warps and cracks, they reveal a more essential quality of being predicated on the all unifying notion that change is inevitable. A little gold dust to soften the blow of a fall; now isn’t that a most gentle appreciation for that which we try so hard to hide or negate.