Using Gold To Repair Ceramics

Ceramic glazes preserve your pottery and tile s coloring and also adds a layer of protection from small scratches.

Using gold to repair ceramics.

The glazed coating presents a problem though. Some four or five centuries ago in japan a lavish technique emerged for repairing broken ceramics. Artisans began using lacquer and gold pigment to put shattered vessels back together. Rather than rejoin ceramic pieces with a camouflaged adhesive the kintsugi technique employs a special tree sap lacquer dusted with powdered gold silver or platinum.

Of repairing ceramics with lacquer and gold is called gold lacquer repair. The final layer of urushi is covered with fine gold powder and then burnished. This technique transforms broken ceramic or pottery into beautiful art to it s its new life enhancing the break lines with gold giving the mended broken pottery. Save the liquid gold leaf for step 4.

The gold join may seem too obvious compared to almost invisible western repairs. Some refer to it as kintsugi art with a metaphor of kintsugi life re birth or wabi sabi philosophy. You won t realize your full potential until you go. The meaning of kintsugi kintsukuroi gold repair art.

This is a traditional japanese technique of repairing ceramics. Kintsugi 金継ぎ golden joinery also known as kintsukuroi 金繕い 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. This tradition known as kintsugi meaning golden seams or kintsukuroi golden repair is still going strong. Japanese kintsukuroi chawan.

Once completed beautiful seams of gold glint in the conspicuous cracks of ceramic wares giving a one of a kind appearance to each repaired piece. If you are using liquid gold leaf you will only need the epoxy resin for step 3. The translation from japanese of kintsugi or kintsukuroi means golden joinery or repair with gold where the gold powder is applied on lacquer. After mixing you have 3 minutes at most after which the adhesive shall have dried.

Kintsugi is the japanese art of putting broken pottery pieces back together with gold a metaphor for embracing your flaws and imperfections. As time goes on however you may need to repaint your ceramics to return them to their original luster. Broken pieces are glued back together using urushi lacquer derived from the sap of the chinese lacquer tree. Even so you should clean and degrease the surface and use emery paper or sandblasting to do mechanical abrasion of the surface.

Ceramic materials boast high surface energy and wet easily. Do this right before you are ready to glue the objects together as this mixture cures quickly. Although kintsugi repair makes it appear as though the original piece was mended with gold the original process is essentially a form of lacquer art. Paint cannot stick to smooth glazed coating.

Mix the epoxy or super glue if it requires mixing.