Wagumi’s Kintsugi workshop series is a long-running and popular feature of London Craft Week and returns for 2024.

Kintsugi is a method to allow broken ceramics to attain a beautiful afterlife.  It is a process that uses lacquer, sealants and metal powder to trace the lines of a breakage, and create something new.  More than a simple act of restoration, kintsugi makes a features of the cracks formed in a moment of chance.  This touches on classic concepts in the Japanese decorative arts, such as the impermanence of things, and beauty in imperfection.

Kintsugi practitioner Iku Nishikawa leads the workshops at wagumi, and will instruct in the principles and techniques of kintsugi.  

Held in two formats, the workshops will offer either a simple introduction to kintsugi, or more bespoke advice for individual pieces. The first format will see small group workshops held at wagumi, to provide entry level instruction.  Including some shortcuts, the sessions are intended as a first encounter with a deeper art.  This style of workshop will allow for participants to work on Japanese ceramic fragments, that they will be able to keep.  The second format offered this year will be one of bespoke repair.  Here participants will be free, with prior consultation, to bring their own ceramics pieces to work on.  The instructor will provide advice on how to repair these individually brought pieces, within a two hour intensive class.  A kintsugi kit will be inclusive within the ticket price.