“Imperfect Beauty”

This small vase broke during a "horse hair" Raku process.  (This piece wasn't glazed and the tongs cooled the thin rim before I could set the pot down and the repaired portion is not visible in first view.) 

Raku ware (楽焼, raku-yaki) is a type of Japanese pottery traditionally used in Japanese tea ceremonies, most often in the form of chawan tea bowls. (Removal from kiln while hot, which results in cracking created by rapid cooling.) 

(The horse hair technique used, not hot enough to crack the unglazed pot, singed the horse hair.  The hot clay body absorbed and trapped the carbon as it rapidly cooled.)

 

Recently, I decided to attempt a Kintsugi treatment. 

Kintsugi (金継ぎ, "golden joinery"), also known as kintsukuroi (金繕い, "golden repair"), is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery by mending the areas of breakage with lacquer dusted or mixed with powdered gold, silver, or platinum, a method similar to the maki-e technique.

 “Voilà!”  (Though not as easy a process as it may seem.)