Kintsugi

Kintsugi is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with gold. It’s all about embracing imperfection and how the marks that an object might carry from years of use only add to its story and value.

This blog is about jewellery (of course!) rather than pottery, but it does very much follow that same Kinsugi philosophy and the rings in the photos at the end now certainly have a story to tell.

A few months ago, a client came to my studio with both arms in casts, having suffered an accident on holiday. This was obviously bad enough in itself, but unfortunately her platinum wedding and engagement rings needed to be cut off, and as usual, making a neat job of this wasn’t really the hospital’s priority!

The rings were both now in several pieces and the engagement ring setting very badly out of shape.

Now, one of the reasons I love working with precious metal, is that it’s very bendy, and there’s rarely a case where something cant be bent back into shape with a little gentle persuasion. This was totally the case here, but due to the way the rings had been cut off, there was now some metal missing.

My client wanted her engagement ring to be restored to exactly how it was before it’s fall, but for the wedding ring, we decided to embrace this new element to the ring’s “story” and take inspiration from Japanese Kintsugi.

So, it’s a subtle difference, but if you look carefully, you might just be able to see that where I’ve had to add in extra metal, this is now 18ct yellow gold rather than platinum.

Before!

The poor rings after they had been cut off in hospital.

Failed cutting attempts

I have no idea why they would try to cut the ring off at its strongest point, but I guess they were just trying to remove it asap. It made a right old mess of the setting though!

Laser welder to the rescue

New platinum lasered into place to fill in all the missing metal.

Re-tipping

The diamond was pretty much being held in by years of dirt buildup, so I decided to remove it and retip the whole setting. If a job needs to be done an all….

Finished!

Can you spot the “Kinsugi” on the wedding ring?

I love the philosophy of celebrating and retaining an objects story as it ages. Nothing stays the same, including us! We all collect stories and memories  as we get older, and the marks that these leave on us and the objects that we own are there to be embraced and valued.

Also…if the Repair Shop ever needs a new expert…I’d be very happy to oblige!!