Off-topic:Kintsugi

I have a very small collection of Japanese pottery, some of which have been chipped or broken over the years. The broken pieces have been kept in the hope that one day I would mend it with kintsugi - a technique to put broken pottery pieces together with gold so that their imperfections can be embraced. And at long last, I decided to try it using the kit I had sent from Japan.
I had expected some fastidiousness, as it is a Japanese art, but what surprised me was the lengthy process which involves applying some paste very thinly and leave it for over night (or sometimes a week) and then scrape off or sand excess paste before applying another paste. This is repeated for 4 or 5 times before, finally you’re allowed to sprinkle gold dust to finish off.

In a way kintsugi is like Japanese flower arrangement or tea ceremony. What makes this process a form of art is that it demands more than mere dexiterity and skills. Calmness and focus required throughout the preparation to cleaning up make you feel as if you are peforming a kind of spiritual ceremony to resusitate the pottery.

My first attempt was not entirely successful. In hindsight, I should have tried it with less ‘valuable’ pottery first. But I was keen to mend all the broken potteries - including the two pizza plates my friend, Vicky, made - in one go and quickly. They all came out with the original shape restored… more or less. Some ended up in red lacquer because I ran out of gold dust. Some had smudges due to over-enthusiastic sanding. and these newly acquired ‘imperfections’ will be embraced.