What (exactly) Is Kintsugi?

Want to know what exactly Kintsugi is? Apart from a funny sounding name… and slightly impossible to spell. It is a very cool ancient Japanese tradition of repairing ceramic or pottery. The results are quiet literally stunning.

Kintsugi (金継ぎ) quiet literally means “To repair with gold” (Japanese: golden joinery) or Kintsukuroi (金繕い) (Japanese: golden repair).

The process is to take lacquer and dust or mix with gold to attach the broken pieces back together. The lacquer that spills out from the two sides connecting shows the break in all it’s glory emphasising it rather than trying to hide it.

It essentially means to embrace imperfection. Which is certainly what it does. Keeping even the old around even when it is does start to crack and break. You may even say this is very poetic perhaps even similar to live. You may be right.

It may seem simple enough a golden lacquer or glue that creates a magnificent finish to any type of ceramic. But it certainly ensures that those memories continue of that special plate or dish that may have accidently taken a fall.

I’ve been fixing our ceramics plates with the Kintsugi Repair Kit for quiet a while… I even managed to fix our Christmas baubles…

The contrast between the smooth finish of the ceramic plate and the golden glue is so striking that you’ll be breaking everything just to be able to repair everything in the Kintsugi style.

What’s more exciting is that it is isn’t hard to do. Promise.

I’ve spent a couple of years perfecting out Kintsugi technique but don’t worry. You’ll get it right on the first go all you need is the Kintsugi Repair Kit.

You’ll love the result soo much that you’ll be breaking plates just to Kintsugi them back together!

Here are some examples of when we had a lot of fun breaking some plates and putting them beautifully back together again.

More info: moraapproved.com