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Street Kintsugi: Artist Rachel Sussman Repairs the Roads with Gold

“Study for Sidewalk Kintsukuroi #01 (New Haven, Connecticut),” photograph with enamel paint and metallic dust. As part of an ongoing series titled Sidewalk Kintsukuroi, artist Rachel Sussman (previously) brings the Japanese art of kintsugi to the streets. We’ve long been enamored by the ancient technique that traditionally involves the process of fixing broken pottery with a lacquer dusted or mixed with powdered gold, resulting in an a…

Art Design

My New Old Chair: Artist “Fixes” Broken Wood Furniture with Opposing Materials

As part of her ongoing series titled My Old New Chair, visual artist Tatiane Freitas repairs broken wood furniture by replacing the missing pieces with translucent acrylic. Much like the Japanese practice of kintsugi or medieval parchment repair, her designs restore functionality to the chairs while acknowledging the history of each piece. One chair from the series was recently included in the Clairvoyance exhibition at Guy Hepner in New York,…

Art

Shattered Porcelain Fragments Fused With Gold by Artist Yeesookyung

Translated Vase (TVW5), 2013, ceramic shards, epoxy, 24k gold leaf, 24 x 20 x 18 inches, all images via Locks Gallery Korean artist Yeesookyung masterfully produces imperfect sculptures, bulbous yet elegant works composed from mismatched porcelain. The series, titled “Translated Vase,” was first inspired by the Korean artisan tradition of destroying porcelain works that are not deemed pristine, and she has continued to make the…

Craft Design

Broken Ceramics Found on the Beach, Turned Into Chopstick Rests Using Kintsugi

“As every Japanese has realized, the waves can take away a great deal from us,” says artist Tomomi Kamoshita. But it is also true that we greatly benefit from it.” Using broken pieces of ceramics that she picked up on the shore, and combining it with pieces of her own broken ceramics, the Tokyo-based potter uses the ancient kintsugi method of repairing ceramics to turn the shards into one-of-a-kind chopstick rests. If the broken pieces of…

Art Craft

Artist Mimics Japanese ‘Kintsugi’ Technique to Repair Broken Vases with Embroidery

Brighton-based artist Charlotte Bailey was fascinated by the traditional Japanese mending technique called kintsugi, where a broken ceramic object is repaired with gold, silver or platinum, to accentuate the damage and ‘honor’ its history. In this interpretation, Bailey utilizes an embroidery method to reassemble a broken vase—a sort of hybrid between kintsugi and darning with a beautiful result. She first wraps each broken piece…

Craft History

The Ingenuity and Beauty of Creative Parchment Repair in Medieval Books

Bamberg, Staatsbibliothek, Msc.Nat.1 (9th century) Another day, another collection of fascinating discoveries from medieval book historian Erik Kwakkel who previously introduced the internet to his observations on the history of doodles, color theory, and rare forms of bookbinding. Kwakkel has also been investigating how bookmakers found creative solutions around damaged parchment—thin membranes of cow and sheepskin used for printing books…

Design

Designer Marcel Dunger Creates Jewelry by Fusing Colorful Bio-Resin to Pieces of Broken Maple Wood

Product designer Marcel Dunger conceived of this fascinating and elegant way of creating small rings, pendants, and earrings by “repairing” broken pieces of maple wood with colored bio-resins. The resin is first poured onto a larger piece of broken wood and after the hardening process the piece is then machined into pieces of jewelry. We’ve seen so many different projects using resin lately from sculptures of aquatic life to hair ornaments,…