Broken Pots , all may not be lost

During recent strong winds I lost a rather nice pot when it crashed to the ground.

Remembering an article I had once read I thought I might try my hand at the ancient Japanese art of Kintsugi.
Many years ago a Shogun, Ashikaga Yoshimasa, sent a cracked chawan—or tea bowl—back to China for repair on it’s return he found that it had been done with unsightly metal rivets so he ordered his own craftsmen to do something better and Kintsugi the art of Golden Repair was created. It is all part of  wabi-sabi, the Japanese philosophy celebrating imperfection, impermanence and incompleteness.

                                    The materials I used were Gorilla Epoxy Glue
in a twin tube dispenser and 100 gm Gold Mica Powder via Amazon a jar of which should last me out unless I defy natural  science to an extraordinary extent.

 

I practised first on a small Erin accent pot which I broke deliberately for the exercise.

The broken surfaces must be absolutely clean and dry, I squeezed out some glue on to some waste card to which I added some of the Mica powder with a wooden stirrer and mixed thoroughly.
It sets very fast so you need enough to do the part of the repair you have decided upon in one go.
The most important part is to spread it along one side of the break thick enough to cover and to allow some to squeeze out when the two surfaces are brought together.
One video on Kintsugi on it suggested that you glue the smaller bits to the larger bits first then add those together when set.
They set fast enough to just hold them in place once joined but one could masking tape them if need be.

So there you have it the ancient art of Kintsugi handed down from generation to generation from father to son and the world according to Google, Ebay and Amazon.