Recently, we had the pleasure of working with US-based artists, Lakeside Pottery (Patty and Morty), who purchased two of our Queensland Boulder Opals to be inset into a custom Kintsugi vase.
For the uninitiated, “the translation from Japanese of kintsugi (also called Kintsukuroi) means “golden joinery” or “to patch with gold”. Some refer to it as Kintsugi art or to it’s metaphor – “kintsugi life” or “wabi-sabi” philosophy. This technique transforms broken ceramic or china vessels into beautiful works of art and to its new life using gold with lacquer or epoxy to enhance breaks giving the broken pottery an aesthetically pleasing and unique presentation.”
The simple philosophy behind this artform is to find beauty in something that has been damaged (which can easily be a metaphor for us mere mortals as well).
While we were first a little concerned with how the opals would be set into the pottery work (given that there was molten gold in the mix), Morty and Patty re-assured us that no damage would come to the opals… and boy, did they do a phenomenal job with it.
You can see the process in video form here –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIECqyE2un4
And don’t forget to check out Lakeside Pottery online here –
http://www.lakesidepottery.com/
