Kintsugi ("golden joinery"), also known as Kintsukuroi ("golden repair"), is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery by mending the areas of breakage with lacquer dusted or mixed with powdered gold, silver, or platinum, a method similar to the maki-e technique.
The Kintsugi technique treats breakage and repair as part of the history of an object, rather than something to disguise. The story goes that kintsugi may have originated when in the late 15th century the emperor sent his damaged pottery back to China for repairs. When it returned repaired with metal staples, he ordered his craftsmen to come up with something more aesthetic, kintsugi (gold repair). This art became such a hype that some collectors deliberately started smashing valuable pottery so it could be repaired with the gold seams of kintsugi.
As a philosophy, kintsugi can be seen to have similarities to the Japanese philosophy of wabi-sabi, an embracing of the flawed or imperfect. Japanese aesthetics values marks of wear by the use of an object. This can be seen as a rationale for keeping an object around even after it has broken and as a justification of kintsugi itself, highlighting the cracks and repairs as simply an event in the life of an object rather than allowing its service to end at the time of its damage or breakage.
How many beautiful messages the kintsugi technique conveys
The kintsugi technique suggests many things. We shouldn’t throw away broken objects. When an object breaks, it doesn’t mean that it is no more useful. Its breakages can become valuable. We should try to repair things because sometimes in doing so we obtain more valuable objects.
The new kintsugi kit from Humade
New kintsugi is a new way of gluing porcelain based on the old kintsugi technique. The art of embracing damage. With New kintsugi, we combine this lovely old technique with new technology. By messy mending, you emphasize the marks and scars of a product giving it a new perspective and beauty while offering it longevity.
Buy the kit here
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Humade is about creating products with a bespoke and individual character; the key is a continuous search for innovative, unorthodox materials and techniques, magnifying the detail into the simplified, elegant essence of design.
Humade, founded by the sisters Gieke en Lotte, is defined by a continuous dialogue, strengthened by a shared passion and true dedication to find a right balance between man, product and space.