GOLD-FINISH REPAIRS
Gold Lacquer Repair - kintsugi - was developed in Japan to repair tea bowls for the tea ceremony in the 16th century. It was then thought that an object to which Gold lacquer repair had been applied was more valuable.
Although a refined tree sap called urushi is traditionally used in this process, conferring strength to an object after the repair, current practices (and this studio) use western conservation materials and methods due to the high toxicity of the traditional methods and materials. Contrary to the traditional kintsugi repairs, all materials we use are fully reversible.
The example below is of a rice bowl repaired following the best conservation practices.
RED & BLACK RICE BOWL
This earthenware bowl had huge sentimental value to its owners. They wanted to repair it in a way that its history and memory would be preserved thus considering the gold-finish technique.
I used genuine 23ct gold powder, which does not tarnish, but silver and other metallic powders are available upon request.
Contact us for help.
 A bag of shards |  Inside a bag of shards |
|---|---|
 Sorting shards and clean dust from edges |  Attaching shards with conservation-grade adhesive whilst holding them in place with tape |
 A complete rice bowl |  Filling areas of loss and breaklines |
 Gold powder applied to inside |  Complete bowl |
 Complete bowl |  Complete bowl |
 Complete bowl |