Mended with Gold - An Introduction

We’ve been in business for just over 3 months now (time flies!) and want to say a big thank you to everyone who has expressed an interest in our kits and our content. Seeing the joy from repairing broken pottery and the beautiful results of your creativity really brightens our day and inspires us to keep improving. Now that our following has grown beyond family and friends, we feel like it’s a good time to share the background behind our vision and values and what you can expect from us in the future. 

The three core values that shape our business and our future plans are: Sustainability, Community, and Creativity. To briefly expand on each value:

Sustainability – Generally when we break something, the first instinct is to throw it out and get something new, or at least that’s very common in North America. The philosophy of Kintsugi, the centuries old Japanese tradition of mending broken ceramics with gold, is centered around the concept that imperfections can be celebrated and broken objects don’t need to be returned to their original form to be considered beautiful. Our sustainability strategy consists of waste reduction, minimal packaging, and environmental donations. More on this here.

Community – So often we buy something, it’s usually a one-way transaction from seller to buyer and that’s the last interaction we have. We believe the act of repairing broken ceramics presents an opportunity for us to interact with our beloved ceramic pieces in a meaningful way by contributing to the art ourselves. In this way, it becomes a collaborative experience, which we want to embody in our process too.  We want to build a community of ceramic enthusiasts and artists so that we can collaborate and exchange ideas, tips and tricks, and support each other during this journey of learning how to Kintsugi.   

Creativity – Traditional Kintsugi is a craft that a small few dedicate their lives to mastering. In addition, it can be quite costly due to the use of real gold powder. Unlike traditional kintsugi, most Kintsugi-inspired modernized ceramic repair materials are generally not food safe and do not always result in the desired look of real gold. However, we believe that there is still a place for these beginner kits that we currently offer, to give the inexperienced a taste of repairing their broken ceramics. There is a spectrum of repair options between the beginner and expert materials and methods, and we want to explore these in greater detail. Currently, we are testing different techniques to create a beautiful result with readily available and cost-effective materials.