Charlotte Bailey, a Brighton-based artist utilizes a unique tool to create art broken pieces of ceramic objects. She is basically repairing broken ceramic objects by following a Japanese mending technique called Kintsugi, a method of repairing broken pottery with gold, silver, or platinum.
In her artistic interpretation, Bailey uses a golden embroidery to keep together the pieces of the broken vase, a kind of a hybrid between Japanese traditional technique and popular sewing technique which worked beautifully. To achieve the final product, the artist first wraps each broken piece in fabric and then utilize gold metallic thread to put the pieces together.
This process doesn’t seek to make the vase functional again, but it’s a symbolic and artistic sculptural object. We find this fusion of two techniques as well as the artistic statement of repairing broken pieces together fascinating.
As a philosophy, kintsugi can be seen to have similarities to the Japanese philosophy of wabi-sabi, an embracing of the flawed or imperfect. Japanese aesthetics values marks of wear by the use of an object. This can be seen as a rationale for keeping an object around even after it has broken and as a justification of kintsugi itself, highlighting the cracks and repairs as simply an event in the life of an object rather than allowing its service to end at the time of its damage or breakage. Staple repair is also a popular, technique used to repair broken ceramic pieces, where small holes are drilled on either side of a crack and metal staples are bent to hold the pieces together. Staple repair was used in Ancient Greece, China, England, and Russia as a repair technique for, particularly valuable pieces.
Whether you ‘re a fan of embroidery, kintsugi or repairing broken vases, you should definitely check and follow her Facebook page and see more of her work.
All photos by Charlotte Bailey