About

Welcome clumsy friends, to my traditional and contemporary Kintsugi repair service. Sometimes you can also sometimes get your butter fingers on already restored objects.

Kintsugi is a Japanese craft using urushi lacquer – a tree sap which until cured causes a horrible rash, which is then gilded with 24ct gold. Each repair takes 3 or more layers of carefully applied lacquer which each take weeks to cure. It’s fiddly, and time consuming. And a beautiful process using entirely natural materials.

It is possible to use contemporary adhesives, which makes it faster and cheaper, but no longer food safe. This makes it financially accessible to more people so on balance I’ve chosen to offer this option. Contemporary adhesives are also less stable in heat, 80° for contemporary, 110° for urushi.

I also often make a non-traditional aesthetic choice to keep and even accentuate a ‘cracked’ look; depending on the glaze, the type of clay and how it broke. You can decide for your self if you accept my intuition for it. I do not edit my photos, I really do get that smooth, bright finish on my chip repairs. I don’t know why other UK kintsugi artists work looks rough. Sorry not sorry 💅.

It is not possible to gild anything if I cant get my hand and various tools into it. Bowls, yes. Mugs, no.

For incredibly sentimental mugs and vases with small openings, it is often possible to functionally repair them, and gild the outside and up over the lip, but not inside the object. This is a compromise on the work, but sometimes people are really attached to something so I try to make it possible where I can.

Twice in ten years someone has sent me something, I’ve repaired it, and then I’ve dropped it. It is a risk you take sending it to me, in both cases I repaired it a second time, but if it happens I can’t guarantee that that is possible. And you can’t be mad really, because you started it.

I do not offer workshops.