Maandelijks archief: mei 2015

broken is more beautiful, the art of kintsugo

The Japanese attitude towards broken dishes is full of hope and yet extremely realistic. No chance you can undo disaster when your favourite bowl is broken. Missing bits, messy glue. No matter how crafty you are, it will always look like a badly repaired broken dish. So, is there no way to hide the breakage and be painfully reminded every time you use it? No. But how insightful to not hide the memory, but make it more beautiful. Let’s not hide the pain, but give it a silver lining. Literally.

image.Kintsugo

Here are some pictures of a bowl a friend asked me to give a silver or, in this case, a gold lining. After sticking the parts together with a mixture of special lacquer and flour, some weeks in the muro, a hot and wet drying cabinet, sanding and cleaning, it is time to finish with gold dust.

Broken is even better! The story of this bowl is clearly visible. Maybe it can inspire us to wear our scars with pride and confidence.