Kintsugi Inspired Mosaic: A Life Broken and Repurposed
My normal mosaics are much bigger than the one I’m showing and telling today. But I thought that I’d ring the changes and challenge myself to make something smaller. This l10cm squared mosaic sits on my mantlepiece. I use it as a tool for reflection. It’s also the profile picture for my social media sites.
I made it when I first started to study ‘A Course in Miracles’. It was a lovely thing to make for a couple of reasons. Firstly it was experimental and it’s always fun to play with new techniques. It also helped me reflect on how I would repurpose my life as a consequence of what I was learning.
Kintsugi As Inspiration
I wish I’d known about kintsugi a long time ago. As a clumsy clot there’s a hell of a lot of stuff that I’ve broken in the past. I can picture some of the things that I could have mended using this Japanese technique. Alas! I threw them reluctantly in the bin. A wonderfully wacky ceramic candelabra springs to mind. It would have suited this treatment nicely.
For those who aren’t in the know Kintsugi is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with lacquer mixed with powdered precious metal. Philosophically the flaw is embraced and damage becomes part of the object’s narrative. I love both the metaphor and the articles that are given a new lease of life after being repaired in this way.
How I Made The Mosaic
I crunched up some matt ceramic porcelain tiles into random shapes with my trusty wheeled nippers. Then I used Pebeo porcelain pens to draw little cartoons on some of them to depict different aspects of my life. There’s twenty of these. Most of the themes will be common to everyone: a home, health, money, family, time. However there were a few that were more personal to me: a motorhome and a bike for example. To make the ink permanent, I cooked the little shards in the oven at 150 degrees celsius, as per the instructions on the pen packet. The old man always likes me using kitchen equipment for my crafting projects. NOT!
Once the pieces had cooled down I broke each one in half before using them in my composition using more blank white pieces of tile to fill in the gaps. The red heart is made out of tiles made of a different material, vitreous glass tiles and those rays coming out of it are fragments of mirror glass. I bought a few big tiles from a remainders bin at B&Q many years ago and I still have a good supply.
I used builder’s PVA to stick the pieces to a plywood backing. You need a strong glue. I thought that I was getting a bargain when I bought some stuff suited for primary school children. Let’s just say it was a false economy.
Once the glue was dry I grouted the mosaic with Mapei Ultracolor. I always have a big bag of this anthracite coloured powder to hand . However the shade wasn’t important here because I covered each line with Jacard Lumiere Bright Gold Acrylic Paint,. This was a nod to the kintsugi effect. To finish the mosaic I smear grout over the edges to cover the wooden substrate and paint the back with any pot of black paint I’ve got to hand.
The Meaning Behind The Mosaic
This was a really enjoyable piece to make. It induced a contemplative state during its creation. It’s not difficult to work out that the heart and the spiky fronds in the middle signifies love radiating outwards The painted ‘kintsugi’ grouted lines are an extension of these.
Some of these fractured images invoke memories of past times: travels, times of scarcity and plenty, good health and serious illness, Brexit, relationships that have endured or ended. All, even the ‘bad experiences’ have contributed to growth even though they seemed pants at the time. But as the design suggests, love flowed through in spite of the hardship.
Other pictures are there to denote a willingness for different aspects of my life to be reused: my body: my possessions : those relationships and my thought processes. Lots of the images invoke different ideas. When I look at the eye, for instance I recall an operation to correct a squint in my childhood. It’s also there to acknowledge that my vision can be repurposed.
Inspiration For Other Mosaics
I’ve been inspired to create similar designs for friends and family with and without the kintsugi effect. Here’s one that I made for my friend, Martha, a keen Democratic cook who loves her family, dragonflies and the Worldle puzzle in the New York Times. This time I kept the little cartoons intact and left the grout as it is, that anthracite colour that I’ve told you about earlier.
These little mosaics make great alternatives to greetings cards for all sorts of occasions. They are so fun to do and only take a couple of hours to complete. I particularly like the ones that I make for baby births with the name of the newborn incorporated into the picture. These keepsakes are always happily received.
Disclaimer
This post contains links to companies and organisations just because I’m happy with the products or services that they supply or I’m spreading the word about what they do. There may also be affiliate links to Amazon for books and other items that I am personally recommending. If you decide to make a purchase from them, I might get a little bit of commission at no cost to you.