Pandemic Kintsugi

During the pandemic, I decided to teach Kintsugi over zoom. What you see on the table were the contents of the kit I mailed to each participant. A journal, JB Weld epoxy resin, gold mica powder, acrylic gloss medium, popsicle sticks, water balloons, and not pictured, air dry clay. I set up a tripod and wired my phone to be the second camera on zoom to capture “top down” shots during demonstrations.

Together, we met on zoom and created our air dry clay bowls using the balloons as our moulds. Then, we broke them. Followed by gold repair.

Reflecting back to this workshop series, I feel accomplishment and cringy.

Accomplishment because we did the thing. We logged into zoom (again) to connect with others in the best way we knew how. We endured so many can you hear me nows accompanied by the guesswork of human interaction cues on the screen. We did our best to connect with our creativity, and it brought us some vitality.

Cringy because I do not use resin epoxy for Kintsugi repair anymore. It’s a horrible smelling substance that is difficult to work with in the context of Kintsugi. I am so glad to have discovered a different way about this!

A big huge thank you for reading—I hope to re-do this virtual experience one day!

—Jen