What is Kintsugi?

This original, illustrated card stemmed from my love and practice for Chanoyu, Japanese Tea Ceremony. It is inspired from the Japanese art of Kintsugi, repairing broken pottery with lacquer, often with powdered gold, and the notion of treasuring and finding beauty in imperfections. I had a fun experience repairing a broken tea bowl with my husband though it took much longer with wait times in between drying than I thought. Initially, I was sad that our tea bowl was broken, but doing kintsugi with its delicate process of turning something broken into something stronger, more beautiful and loved made me love our tea bowl even more. Repairing our tea bowl inspired me to create this design. There’s so much beauty in imperfections when we choose to see them. I see the art of kintsugi as a symbol of love of healing through time, patience and repairs. The love we have can thrive again, even better and more deeply than before in a newfound way. I hope you gift this card to your loved one to let them know that although we are all imperfect, our loved ones make us feel complete.

 

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