KINTSUGI Technique in six steps
1. preparation of the shards
The ceramic shards must be clean and dry. Depending on their condition, the fracture edges may be ground, and the fracture surfaces pretreated with raw lacquer, which is cured in the moisture cabinet.
2. gluing
Rice paste with raw lacquer or wheat flour with water and raw lacquer is suitable for gluing the fragments. Occasionally, a glue is also made from NIKAWA (animal glue) and raw lacquer.
Following the bonding of the shards, curing takes place. The duration of polymerization depends on the adhesive and is about two to four weeks.
Various tools are used to remove the excess cured adhesive.
3. filling of missing parts
Small chipping and flat missing parts are filled with rust lacquer (SABI URUSHI) and sanded after drying.
This is followed by one or more coats of ROIRO URUSHI intermediate varnish, which must also be sanded after curing in the moisture cabinet.
4. intermediate lacquer — NAKANORI
This is followed by one or more coats of intermediate varnish (NAKANORI) with ROIRO URUSHI which must also be sanded after curing in the moisture cabinet.
5. gold application
The base coat is applied very thinly with a suitable brush,
Using the gold sprinkling brush (ASHIRAI KEBO), powder gold is picked up and sprinkled on by tapping with the finger while holding the brush over the surface to be coated.
The objects are placed back in the moisture cabinet to harden the coating.
6. elimination of errors in the gold layer.
Often, during gold sprinkling, there are small errors — uneven lines or missing parts — which still need to be eliminated.