Kintsugi – Workshop Visit and Conversation with ZEN’s Watanabe Atsuko

Pay a virtual visit to the workshop of Watanabe Atsuko, Japanese kintsugi artist and founder of the sustainable pottery and ceramics brand ZEN.

Kintsugi, roughly translating as ‘joining with gold’, is a centuries-old Japanese repair technique which uses urushi (Japanese lacquer) sprinkled with powdered gold and other precious metals to mend broken ceramic and porcelain items. Rather than masking imperfections, the process results in a decoration which acknowledges chips and cracks as part of an object’s history. Craftspeople at ZEN use kintsugi techniques to restore potters’ and ceramic artists’ works which have been damaged during firing and which would otherwise be discarded, giving them a new lease of life.