Meant To Be Broken

Nothing is perfect, nothing is permanent, and nothing is fully complete. This is the definition of wabi-sabi, the wisdom that I try to live by, and also a fitting description of this blog. Now 18 years in, examples of each tenet can be found in abundance on these sprawling digital pages.

I’ve been blogging here for over half of my life. 18 years is a long time for anything. If we were married, I’d give my dear BitterSweet Blog the gift of porcelain, a delicate, beautiful material symbolizing the care and attention needed to nurture a long-lasting relationship. Of course, with my lack of coordination, I think we all know how this would end.

The number of dishes I’ve shattered over the course of my career could fill a potter’s graveyard. Every time I sweep, random bits and pieces of past plates are liable to surface, no matter when or where I last dropped one. Leaving such destruction in my wake feels like a curse, but in truth, is an opportunity.

Kintsugi, otherwise known as the art of gold mendery, is something I should have taken up long ago. When dishes break, they can be repaired. Not only that, but using gold to fix the seams, they become even more beautiful, valuable, and often stronger than before. It’s not a flaw, but a feature.

To make you own kintsugi, you don’t need to be rich in precious metals. My shortcut here is to take your broken dishware, make sure it’s very clean, and paint the rough edges with gold acrylic paint. Make sure you go over everything that is exposed and no longer shiny or with a finished, glazed edge. Let that dry, then go over it with a very thin layer of food-safe epoxy. Reattach the pieces, slowly and carefully, going in stages if needed to let other pieces set first. That’s all it takes.

This is best for dishware with clean breaks and minimal chipping or missing pieces. There are other approaches that use additional epoxy to fill more substantial gaps, or replace them with matching pieces from similar dishware, but that’s simply above my pay grade. You’ll want to hand wash the mended ceramics to be safe, moving forward.

Is it perfect? Absolutely not. That’s the beauty of it. Cheers, to another 18 years of breaking things and putting them back together, better than ever.