OR RATHER THE ART OF SANDING.
Kintsugi the art of patience
I take the liberty of writing this post in order to take up some truths about the traditional art of Kintsugi, practiced with passion by many of us but particularly abused by others who usually make misunderstandings. ...
BRIEF HISTORY
In the traditional art of Urushi (漆) and Kintsugi there is the word ART. Behind every artistic practice are stories and concepts.
Indeed, this art is not reduced to a simple assembly of broken pieces but is based on a whole ancestral Japanese tradition combining spirituality, ceremonial and craftsmanship. Its roots are in the Japanese history and the iemoto system (model of family organization of traditional Japanese arts, such as ikebana, nō theater, chanoyu or go) as well as Zen Buddhism.
Charged with philosophy, the Kintsugi establishes its foundations through various meaningful ideas: Wabi-Sabi* (わび・さび) or the art of imperfect perfection. Wabi-Sabi* is a Japanese expression for an aesthetic concept, or spiritual disposition, Wabi can be translated as sobriety / simplicity and Sabi as the feeling of peace emanating from things past.
We can also mention the term Mottainai (勿体無い) which can be translated as the feeling directly related to the Buddhist concept of remorse for wasted and misused resources.
CONTEMPORARY KINTSUGI ...
If we were to associate an opposite term with the art of Kintsugi it would be "haste" because kintsugi is all about patience, slowness, gentleness ... but above all learning.
I often see passing on the internet very pretty ceramics worked with the said art of Kintsugi.
The pieces shine with a thousand lights, they show their most beautiful side, ready to be exhibited or re-used. The problem is that the angles presented are always exterior and rarely interior.
In fact, the whole philosophy of the art of kintsugi is inside the bowl. I explain during the first lessons to my trainees that assembling broken pieces is relatively simple and fast, but then come the more complex and essential stages, that is to say the filling, the drying and especially the sanding which is certainly easy for the outside part but turns out to be much more complex for the inside part.
One of the most important things during the working process is that the surface along the faults (exterior and interior) must always be perfectly smooth which explains that one can spend hours, days, even months sanding.
Please imagine several hours of sanding with a tiny piece of sandpaper (1x1 cm) and water held in one hand between two fingers, alternating the grain of the paper folded in half to achieve sanding a mixture called sabi ursushi (filling made of earth and lacquer)
which has the specificity of becoming very hard after drying. You have to imagine, with these elements in hand, sanding the inside and the bottom of a bowl with all the delicacy of know-how so as not to SCRATCH the surface of the ceramic by repeating the operation as many times as necessary.
It's a tedious but ESSENTIAL step ...
This crucial step represents 80% of Kintsugi. It represents the success of your work and the final aesthetic of the object. The latter will then be covered with black, red and / or golden lacquer thanks to the gold powder.
Contrary to popular belief, it is not gold that gives your work its beauty. Gold can sublimate it but in no way conceal the flaws. Because by applying gold to an unprepared surface, not smoothed, badly sanded, grainy, will make the defects more visible.
This traditional Japanese art is therefore not just a simple pose of gold in a desire for perfection and sublimation.
Kintsugi is the art of imperfect perfection. It is a spiritual, aesthetic and artistic process that I want to pass on to future enthusiasts to come.
Learn from failure. That's all there is to it.
* To learn more about Wabi & Sabi I recommend the book by Leonard Koren: À l'usage des artistes, designers, poètes & philosophes ... available in all good bookshops.