Kintsugi / ‘golden joinery’ is a way of restoring broken pottery that originated in the 15th century. Traditionally in Japan, the craftsmen use urushi: the natural lacquer to join, fill and cover the breakage. Mizuyo will teach how to fix potteries using the urushi – a new urushi which has been developed to cure in the climate outside East Asia. We will use brass powder instead of genuine gold as it is easier to work with.

You will learn: the quincentenary old technique of kintsugi and the history around it.

You will need: Kintsugi beginners kit (supplied with the course), tile or plastic sheet, plain wheat flour, turpentine (turpentine replacement is NOT turpentine!), rag or tissue papers, cling film, toothpick, water & plastic/wooden box that can contain the ceramic objects you’ll be working on.

To practice, please have some ceramic objects with small clean cracks or small chips on the rim. It will be difficult to follow the workshop if the damage/missing part is large.

This course consists of 4 sessions of 1.5 hr Zoom meetings. Each session will include a 10 minute break and include Q&A time based on individual cases.

As this is a group workshop, you must be on time to participate in each session. Mizuyo will not recap for the late attendees in the course. As there will be no recording of the sessions, please ensure you attend all sessions.

The object that you repair cannot be put in the microwave, dishwasher nor oven. Also it will not be completely food safe due to the brass.

Important Health & Safety: Allergy to urushi or brass. Latex gloves and warnings are included in the kit. So far 10-20% of people showed some allergic reaction to the urushi we use in the course.

This booking is for the full course which is over 4 days. Please ensure you are able to attend on all the dates before booking.