The Art of Kintsugi: Online Talk & Demonstration

Learn about the centuries-old Japanese art of kintsugi in this online talk and demonstration led by Nishikawa Iku from Kintsugi Oxford. Nishikawa gives an introduction to the art of kintsugi, before demonstrating how viewers can use kintsugi techniques to repair their own broken or chipped ceramic items at home.

Roughly translating as ‘joining with gold’, kintsugi is the process by which broken ceramic pieces are repaired using seams of tree-sap lacquer (urushi) often dusted with powdered gold or other precious materials.

The craft is underpinned by a philosophy of finding beauty in the flawed or imperfect: treating cracks and damage as part of the history of an object, and as something to celebrate rather than to disguise.

This is a recording of a live online event; we apologise for some minor sound distortion at the start of this video.

About Nishikawa Iku

Founder of Kintsugi Oxford, Nishikawa Iku was born and raised in Kochi, Japan. She first became attracted to the art of kintsugi while assisting Kyoto lacquerware artists Shimode Muneaki and Sato Takahiko with the delivery of kintsugi workshops at the Ashmolean Museum and the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford. Although kintsugi has often been considered as a professional craft technique achievable only in Japan, through practice and training Nishikawa found that the craft could be accessible outside of Japan by using recently developed new materials. As Kintsugi Oxford, she has given kintsugi workshops in Japan, Italy and the UK using new materials. She hosts individual and group lessons from her studio in Oxford from where she carries out kintsugi repairs for private clients. She has worked with artists including Lisa Hammond, Bouke de Vries, Kat Wheeler and Claudia Clare.