[unpaid/paidforexperience/affiliate] I was all up and ready to post about a new lip balm I’ve found (which can wait til Monday) when I remembered it’s Friday and it’s the day for something different. I booked a Kintsugi class for myself and my two (adult) children as a bit of a family day (Mr BBB was quite happy at home not gluing himself to his apron) and it was so much fun. If I’d known how easy it is, I’d have insisted he come along as well. If you don’t know Kintsugi, it’s the ancient Japanese art of repairing broken ceramics by joining the pieces back together with gold or silver powder and lacquer. It dates back to the 1200s and is associated with Zen Buddhism – really, it’s reinvention and the idea of no matter how broken, things and people can come back better than before.
It’s quite a tranquil thing to do and definitely, while you’re learning at least, a ‘paint by numbers’ exercise, that I would say would suit almost any degree of skill set. I try and learn something new every single year – last year it was a Goldwork embroidery class which was a disaster because I was mortifyingly bad at it and I wasn’t very good at Verre Eglomise (reverse glass painting) either, although fared much better at Fashion Drawing (pre-Covid). But you know, I gave it a shot. I think the point is that it doesn’t really matter if you’re any good, you understand a process that you didn’t before and that’s great for the grey cells, as well as giving yourself a gentle push out of your comfort zone. The worst that can happen is that you discover that your side hustle won’t be anything that requires a needle, in my case! If you have fine motor skill or sight impairments, you may struggle with Kintsugi, but nonetheless, a good tutor will make sure you come out with something acceptable.
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For our class, the first exercise was breaking our (provided) pot. For classes, it’s easier to have a predictable break to teach so you are shown how to break your pot into three pieces. Lucy, of course, broke hers into five and you will see from the pictures that the finished bowls represent our personalities perfectly!
It’s then a case of being dextrous with glue, which needs mixing vigorously for a few seconds, applying with a fine, flat stick (like a coffee stirrer) and then holding the pieces together for three minutes to ensure they are bonded. From there, you sprinkle (without touching the line) gold powder (I am fairly sure we weren’t working with actual gold – it wasn’t an expensive enough experience for that to be the case) on a brush before carrying on with the next glue session.
During the drying times, the teacher talked us through the philosophies behind Kintsugi, including ‘wabi-sabi’ which is the act of embracing something that is flawed, and before we knew it, the session was done and we were ready to take our bowls home. Above are our bowls – the light blue one is Lucy’s therefore chaotic but bright and imaginative, the black one is Max’s reflecting caution, serenity and attention to detail, and mine, a mixture of both (I think!).
I booked through Class Bento who have classes in all sorts of things HERE, but if you can follow brothers Lee and Brandon (tutors) @kinboru_uk HERE on Instagram to get a visual idea of the class. If you really don’t like the idea of a group activity, I’ve found some starter sets on Amazon and this one HERE looks like it covers the basics. Just make sure you follow the instructions to the letter and better still, watch a few YouTube videos beforehand.
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