When something is broken, it is often thrown away without a second thought. In the ever more rare event that it is repaired, we want it to be as if it was never broken. We don’t want to know what happened to it. A successful repair is one in which the item is rendered “As good as new”.

The Japanese have an art form, Kintsugi, in which a broken piece of pottery is repaired using gold lacquer. The lacquer highlights the cracks and fills the voids, making them more visible rather than invisible. The idea is that the piece was useful, was broken, was loved enough to warrant repair, and is now made more lovely by it’s history and it’s ‘imperfections’.

Being quite imperfect myself, I am drawn to these pieces and to this idea. I have been experimenting with it in my work. Metal, when it is over-worked, becomes brittle and can break. If you’ve ever taken an expired credit card and bent it back and forth until it snapped, you’ve got the idea. I’ve been taking broken pieces of silver, and soldering them back together with a piece of gold wire across the join. The effect is subtle, but I like it. And I think we can all use the reminder that broken can be an opportunity.

Kintsugi Inspired