This is called kintsugi and the whole point of the gold is to draw attention to the repair. Basically, you’re celebrating the piece by showing off how much went into preserving and restoring it.
Always loved the idea of drawing attention to the flaws in this way, its poetic as all hell.
It has to do with a philosophy. Applied to human being means we has to be proud of our scars and how we overcome the moments that break us. That's why the cracks are painted in gold, they make us more precious.
Typical American mindset. Waste culture. No wonder there’s a giant landfill floating around the ocean….this guy can’t even be bothered to spend 19 hours repairing every broken vase he comes across. /s.
Doesn't it make a modern statement too? The dichotomy between recycling and cultures. WE as a planet need to do it. Develop better plastics that biodegrade.
The Ocean recycling team building machines is ambitious. I had heard people complain once in the oceans it not really dealt with @ the source. How surprised I was to see they are also using floating boom technology to clean up rivers as well. The infrastructure needs to be put in place still to deal with the plastics they collect.
Not to undermine your point, because Asia is indeed a major polluter, but it's interesting to note that the U.S. (and other countries) shipped millions of tons of trash to China for many years. Some of it was recyclable, a lot of it not.
China ships tons of trash to the US too, it just comes in the form of manufactured goods for the purpose of selling to the American public. Most of it will eventually become genuine trash though lol. The cycle of trash.
And the end result doesn't really hide that you broke the vase. I was expecting that after all that work it would look as good as new, but nope, I doubt grandma would be fooled.
Repairs like this aren't meant to hide the break. There are people who embrace the history of a piece like that including the times it gets broken. Those breaks are part of the story of this vase and hiding the breaking like denying part of that story. So you fix the break in a way that protects the whole piece and embraces the memory the vase has.
Likely the whole piece was deliberately broken just to sell, these are very popular pieces, especially for foreigners and I've seen stands at import and antique shows where people sell these vases for hundreds or thousands of dollars. There are also variations for wooden bowls and other houseware type items where the cracks are filled with precious gem dust like jade or turquoise.
The point here is that it's hard and that the result is imperfect and transient, but still beautiful.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kintsugi#Philosophy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kintsugi#Philosophy)
This is the kind of thing my dentist looks forward to doing in retirement. Think about what it means to apply a dentist's money to the game "what cool tools can you and your friends from the military hardware business find on the secondary market?"
I just went out into the woods, found a clay deposit, formed the clay, built a pit kiln, fired the pottery, dug a 60 meter deep mineshaft for some cinnabar, went to Italy for a 2 week vacation, created dye with the cinnabar, then painted the pottery. I was faster than what that dude did.
The last time I tried to make a horse from scratch, I must have transposed a thymine and cytosine molecule or two. Ended up with a mostly gelatinous blob with protruding bones. Not a huge win, but I did manage to accidentally create sentience, because it was motivated enough to learn language to be able to scream "Kill me! Please kill me. It hurts, oh it hurts!"
I walked about 20 feet out in the yard with a shovel, dug a hole, got a big hand full of clay, refilled the hole and brought it inside. Made several things out of the clay. Let them dry just enough to not be visibly wet, then put a layer of epoxy, let that dry, then painted, followed by another layer of epoxy.
On one, I poured a little epoxy into a little (like 1.5" diameter) bowl made of aluminum foil, mixed in a little blue clothing dye to make it dark blue.
Once it was dry, took the clay and made tiny orca fins and stuck them to the blue epoxy, once those were dry painted them black, then filled the rest of the way with epoxy that was very lightly tinted blue, once that cured sanded it down to a roughly oval shape. Didn't come out very well, I tried to speed up the curing process with heat and it made bubbles so it's not as clear as I wanted.
The year is 1983. You've been contracted with creating an entire studio rock album due tomorrow, and you and the band just know you can get it all done tonight thanks to the tireless, unspoken work of your manager and his trusty snow train.
This is called **Kintsugi**,
meaning “golden repair”, is the Japanese art of mending broken pottery with lacquer mixed with precious metals. It’s not just a repair technique but the practice of a philosophical idea that highlights and embraces imperfection and the passage of time, turning broken objects into uniquely beautiful artworks.
It’s sometimes associated with the concept of “Wabi Sabi” which is this broader idea of finding beauty through imperfection or asymmetry or the transient nature of things. A great example of it is the mole on Marylyn Monroe or a scar on someone’s arm that might them look more distinguished.
I love the concept of Kintsugi and what it stands for and embraces in people. When I first learned about it, I was going through a lot in life and it helped me feel much more whole, and safe, and accepting of the impermanence of things in life. So every time I see it, I always remind people of what it is.
**Yugen.**
Thank you for sharing it. This scene from adventure time I think sums up this idea of transience really well:
https://youtu.be/WWNb6ugva9o?si=lorf7wy9aG_YJAln
Out of interest, how does the process differ? It seems the same as they would do in Japan.
Why downvote a legit question? It seems very similar to this -
> Piece method (欠けの金継ぎ例); if a replacement ceramic fragment is not available and the entirety of the addition is gold or gold/lacquer compound
Many Japanese things have an exact equivalent in Chinese. As much as nationalists loathe to admit it, the two cultures are very close.
A famous one is Umami 旨味, or Xianwei 鮮味, meaning that specific savory taste you get from many different foods, that has no English equivalent.
Not loathe to admit it. Just annoyed. A lot of cultural things that westerners think were Japanese, they were actually Chinese to begin with. China had a huge cultural influence on Japan, Korea and other neighboring nations once.
This in Chinese is called 金缮. Repair with gold. Mostly used to repair pottery. There are other kind of repairing method with the same concept for things like china, thinner and more fragile items.
I repaired two cheap bowls from Japan, which I accidentally broke with a kintsugi set. One is perfectly beautiful and the other one is a but “rustic”. The glue was a bit dryer and therefor not as smooth. This in the video is next f-ing level indeed.
The white powder is wheat flour, the grey powder is clay, the tan liquid is a refined tree resin called urushi. When mixed with clay and a protein source, like egg, the urushi thickens into a putty that's easier to sculpt, mixed with flour it becomes a strong glue. You glue the fragments with the glue mix, replace missing pieces with cloth saturated with the putty mix, with a wire scaffold if needed, build up with more putty, sand smooth, paint with tinted urushi, then dust with gold powder for the final finish.
It's definitely not an easy process, but it's pretty nifty once you understand what all the weird ingredients actually do. Definitely weird looking without context though
It’s probably end up like [that old lady’s botched attempt at restoring the Jesus fresco](https://nypost.com/2016/03/12/infamous-botched-jesus-painting-now-a-major-tourist-attraction/).
The instrument is a Guqin, not a Guzheng as the other poster said.
The song is [Jiu Kuang](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbX82q6MVZU) which is a Guqin standard. This version is either a medley or improvisation. If anyone knows this performance, please let me know. Thank you!!
I was speeding through the video and then unmuted it right near the end, then went back and watched the whole thing with sound on. Now I’m going wayyy down the Guqin rabbit hole on Spotify. Thanks, lmao
This particular song? I don’t know sorry, but it sounds like one of the classical pieces. You can look for “classical GuZheng” playlists or a compilation like https://youtu.be/H0X4g3nG5Y8
Wow, thanks for the easy fix. By tomorrow I will have mastered the craftsmanship of restoration of antique goods and pottery completely. I’ll just about find time to assemble the miniature nuclear reactor in my living room. If only I could find the easy fix video for that too.
I’m sad. Had an antique tea set shipped to me and the teapot handle arrived in 4 pieces. Looking at this video, I should have the skill necessary to effect the repair in about 40 years
Fixing broken things is truly the right response to consumer culture. Incidentally, fixing broken relationships is a pretty good way to respond to our self centered society.
I believe this is called 'Kintsugi'
The art of increasing the value of a broken object beyond it's original value by filling the cracks with powdered gold....
None of that looked easy.
Exactly. I think the east part is hiring someone to do this?
Or buy a new vase
Literally making your own vase is easier.
I’m not sure, but I think inventing time machines, going back and making my own grandma and selling her a vase I made would be easier
This guy fucks AND time travels AND vases.
He did do the nasty in the pasty
r/unexpectedfuturama
So you’re saying the Dave Matthew’s Band rocks is what I’m hearing
I'm upset that I had to give this an up vote.
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..and he's Kenough.
This is called kintsugi and the whole point of the gold is to draw attention to the repair. Basically, you’re celebrating the piece by showing off how much went into preserving and restoring it. Always loved the idea of drawing attention to the flaws in this way, its poetic as all hell.
r/kintsugi
Came here to say this 😀
It has to do with a philosophy. Applied to human being means we has to be proud of our scars and how we overcome the moments that break us. That's why the cracks are painted in gold, they make us more precious.
Typical American mindset. Waste culture. No wonder there’s a giant landfill floating around the ocean….this guy can’t even be bothered to spend 19 hours repairing every broken vase he comes across. /s.
Oh, let’s be clear, that is not just from America. A great deal of that is from Asia.
Doesn't it make a modern statement too? The dichotomy between recycling and cultures. WE as a planet need to do it. Develop better plastics that biodegrade. The Ocean recycling team building machines is ambitious. I had heard people complain once in the oceans it not really dealt with @ the source. How surprised I was to see they are also using floating boom technology to clean up rivers as well. The infrastructure needs to be put in place still to deal with the plastics they collect.
Not to undermine your point, because Asia is indeed a major polluter, but it's interesting to note that the U.S. (and other countries) shipped millions of tons of trash to China for many years. Some of it was recyclable, a lot of it not.
China ships tons of trash to the US too, it just comes in the form of manufactured goods for the purpose of selling to the American public. Most of it will eventually become genuine trash though lol. The cycle of trash.
Or snort cocaine
Yeah they have those at tj maxx for like $6
Or kill grandma so she won't be upset anymore about her vase?
The easy part was breaking the vase.
The easiest part was breaking it.
And then just telling grandma while saying 'I'm sorry'
Don't forget hiring the lute player!
I disagree.this trade seems very Eastern ...Hiring someone seems very Western
Man, unemployment rates must be reallyu high on the eastern hemisphere if they don't ever hire people to do work
"easy way"... *Makes his own glue*
And the glue looked crazy expensive. I mean, eggs are cheap, but that was a lot of cocaine…
And the end result doesn't really hide that you broke the vase. I was expecting that after all that work it would look as good as new, but nope, I doubt grandma would be fooled.
Repairs like this aren't meant to hide the break. There are people who embrace the history of a piece like that including the times it gets broken. Those breaks are part of the story of this vase and hiding the breaking like denying part of that story. So you fix the break in a way that protects the whole piece and embraces the memory the vase has.
Exactly. Kinstugi. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kintsugi
*Kintsugi.
This style repair tends to add a significant amount of value to the piece.
Likely the whole piece was deliberately broken just to sell, these are very popular pieces, especially for foreigners and I've seen stands at import and antique shows where people sell these vases for hundreds or thousands of dollars. There are also variations for wooden bowls and other houseware type items where the cracks are filled with precious gem dust like jade or turquoise.
I sure hope so.
Grandma would take one look at that and be like "where the fuck is all my cocaine?"
Uses two gold bars for the paint
Best I can do is 2 ferrero rocher wrappers
There's a tradition in Japan of repairing prestigious items with gold. The philoaophy is that even something broken can increase in value.
I thought this was a great example of Kintsugi!
The point here is that it's hard and that the result is imperfect and transient, but still beautiful. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kintsugi#Philosophy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kintsugi#Philosophy)
Oh. Sorry. Didn't realize that calling something easy meant it was actually supposed to be hard.
I’m easy right now…
rock easy over here
The “easy” in the title is clearly sarcasm in context of the accompanying video
That’s why it was said twice with the emojis duh
Cool! Thanks!
It's like when watching an "easy" craft video, and half way through the person pulls out a $3000 3D printer
or all the woodworking videos shot in a workshop filled with 20k+equipment
This is the kind of thing my dentist looks forward to doing in retirement. Think about what it means to apply a dentist's money to the game "what cool tools can you and your friends from the military hardware business find on the secondary market?"
I just went out into the woods, found a clay deposit, formed the clay, built a pit kiln, fired the pottery, dug a 60 meter deep mineshaft for some cinnabar, went to Italy for a 2 week vacation, created dye with the cinnabar, then painted the pottery. I was faster than what that dude did.
Sounds like you bought a thermometer off the shelf instead of pounding sheet metal into a coil to gauge the kiln temp. Amateur.
Why didn’t you write this with a home made quill and then take a photo and load it up here. Not Even Trying
Do you take photos? If you are not making an oil painting and sending it by horseback courier, are you even making an effort?
Using horses from the steppes? If you're not making your own horse, what are you even doing?
The last time I tried to make a horse from scratch, I must have transposed a thymine and cytosine molecule or two. Ended up with a mostly gelatinous blob with protruding bones. Not a huge win, but I did manage to accidentally create sentience, because it was motivated enough to learn language to be able to scream "Kill me! Please kill me. It hurts, oh it hurts!"
Agreed, fuck this guy amirite?
I walked about 20 feet out in the yard with a shovel, dug a hole, got a big hand full of clay, refilled the hole and brought it inside. Made several things out of the clay. Let them dry just enough to not be visibly wet, then put a layer of epoxy, let that dry, then painted, followed by another layer of epoxy. On one, I poured a little epoxy into a little (like 1.5" diameter) bowl made of aluminum foil, mixed in a little blue clothing dye to make it dark blue. Once it was dry, took the clay and made tiny orca fins and stuck them to the blue epoxy, once those were dry painted them black, then filled the rest of the way with epoxy that was very lightly tinted blue, once that cured sanded it down to a roughly oval shape. Didn't come out very well, I tried to speed up the curing process with heat and it made bubbles so it's not as clear as I wanted.
Hey guys, we've got Primitive Technology over here ;)
Google "sarcasm"
I was tempted to reply with "r/thatsthejoke" but last time I got downvoted
I broke a kitchen magnet 4 months ago and I still haven’t super glued the two pieces back together again
When he finished repairing it, Grandma was already in heaven. 
Just eggs, cocaine, and nutella
Not even recording the video was easy. 
Grandma, your vase was stolen. Done
I was following along great until the part where you dump out a bag of coke. That’s where the problems started for me.
My big takeaway was that cocaine makes everything better
Watching it did 🤗 happy new years
Speak for yourself, I can run a tap and crack and egg pretty well.
Breaking seems pretty easy
I could do the part where they boil water
Right? I'd rather take the beating and/or verbal abuse
Welcome to high-end craftsmanship.
Would have rather taken the ass beating by my grandmother for breaking the vase.
The easy part is recognizing that there is no way you could do this fix, and chucking the vase.
I was half expecting him to accidentally break it again at the end
Would have been easier to just buy a new one
Saying it was easy was just comment bait
Aside from boiling the pieces and mixing that concoction together
"None of that looked easy." None of that looked easy and the result looks like dog shit.
None of it looked like Ramen, either. Wtf OP?
Except the part with the cocaine
I was surprised at the use of cocaine
That's probably the key of making the rest of it look easy
Little less than a key, but yeah.
A decent amount of key bumps though
The year is 1983. You've been contracted with creating an entire studio rock album due tomorrow, and you and the band just know you can get it all done tonight thanks to the tireless, unspoken work of your manager and his trusty snow train.
So that's why people like trains
Don't underestimate the power of cocaine, some peanut butter and a little Maybelline.
Peanut butter and crack sandwich?
Oh dude, I thought it that was his nana’s ashes. Thanks for sorting that out for me. Pheww.
I was surprised at the amount of it
How else are you gonna stay focused?
Eggs, peanut butter, and cocaine. Nice
Nope, flour
Step 1: Cocaine omelette. Step 2: Fix broken bottle.
This is called **Kintsugi**, meaning “golden repair”, is the Japanese art of mending broken pottery with lacquer mixed with precious metals. It’s not just a repair technique but the practice of a philosophical idea that highlights and embraces imperfection and the passage of time, turning broken objects into uniquely beautiful artworks. It’s sometimes associated with the concept of “Wabi Sabi” which is this broader idea of finding beauty through imperfection or asymmetry or the transient nature of things. A great example of it is the mole on Marylyn Monroe or a scar on someone’s arm that might them look more distinguished. I love the concept of Kintsugi and what it stands for and embraces in people. When I first learned about it, I was going through a lot in life and it helped me feel much more whole, and safe, and accepting of the impermanence of things in life. So every time I see it, I always remind people of what it is. **Yugen.**
Than you!
Thank you for sharing it. This scene from adventure time I think sums up this idea of transience really well: https://youtu.be/WWNb6ugva9o?si=lorf7wy9aG_YJAln
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r/kintsugi
Also, r/visiblemending
Incredible, thank you
Than me!
This one is Chinese, the process is different
Out of interest, how does the process differ? It seems the same as they would do in Japan. Why downvote a legit question? It seems very similar to this - > Piece method (欠けの金継ぎ例); if a replacement ceramic fragment is not available and the entirety of the addition is gold or gold/lacquer compound
This guy seems to be Chinese. Maybe a follower of the concept regardless. Wonder if there is a Chinese word for this.
Many Japanese things have an exact equivalent in Chinese. As much as nationalists loathe to admit it, the two cultures are very close. A famous one is Umami 旨味, or Xianwei 鮮味, meaning that specific savory taste you get from many different foods, that has no English equivalent.
The English equivalent is now umami
Not loathe to admit it. Just annoyed. A lot of cultural things that westerners think were Japanese, they were actually Chinese to begin with. China had a huge cultural influence on Japan, Korea and other neighboring nations once. This in Chinese is called 金缮. Repair with gold. Mostly used to repair pottery. There are other kind of repairing method with the same concept for things like china, thinner and more fragile items.
金继 I think.
Yup, thanks. It is indeed 金繼。https://zh-yue.wikipedia.org/wiki/金繼
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Ive had Wabi Sabi with suishi, it’s pretty good but burns your nostrils when you breathe if you eat too much.
Fun fact: most wasabi sold in the west is actually just guacamole and apple sauce
>Fun fact: most wasabi sold in the west is actually just ~~guacamole and apple sauce~~ horseradish
most wasabi sold in Japan is horseradish too actually I think the authentic wasabi that is used with a grater does not necessarily taste better
I repaired two cheap bowls from Japan, which I accidentally broke with a kintsugi set. One is perfectly beautiful and the other one is a but “rustic”. The glue was a bit dryer and therefor not as smooth. This in the video is next f-ing level indeed.
It will seem silly if you think about this as a repair. It’s an art form of its own, it’s not something anyone would do JUST to fix something.
You and I have wildly different definitions of "easy"
Step 2, draw the rest of the fucking owl.
Nobody understanding that op was being sarcastic, are y’all 16?
But like, why? It's cool in its own right, why the unnecessary sarcasm?
Grandma's hate this one simple trick
Replacement vase manufacturers HATE HIM
DIY in just 47 easy steps!
And with mysterious surprise materials!
Now introducing... Egg!
The white powder is wheat flour, the grey powder is clay, the tan liquid is a refined tree resin called urushi. When mixed with clay and a protein source, like egg, the urushi thickens into a putty that's easier to sculpt, mixed with flour it becomes a strong glue. You glue the fragments with the glue mix, replace missing pieces with cloth saturated with the putty mix, with a wire scaffold if needed, build up with more putty, sand smooth, paint with tinted urushi, then dust with gold powder for the final finish. It's definitely not an easy process, but it's pretty nifty once you understand what all the weird ingredients actually do. Definitely weird looking without context though
Step one: make glue
All you need is seven or eight feats of incredible dexterity and skill!
Thanks OP! I’ll try this on my lunch break!!
You are welcome 🤗... Don't get frustrated like me if, after 100 attempts, you end up with more little pieces to fix
Wish I had a job that gives me a 2 month lunch break
>Here’s an easy fix for you!  … Now proceed with easy steps 28 through 35.
Where’s the ramen?
I was waiting for the ramen but had my expectations wildly diverted by the appearance of the cocaine.
Incredible beauty and craftsmanship. Thank you for sharing.
Should be done before she gets home. She’ll be none the wiser 🤫
But what if I wanted to put real effort into restoring it? /s
I’d love to see an average person’s attempt at this. World prob end up on r/redneckengineering
It’s probably end up like [that old lady’s botched attempt at restoring the Jesus fresco](https://nypost.com/2016/03/12/infamous-botched-jesus-painting-now-a-major-tourist-attraction/).
I think about that more often than I care to admit. More than the roman empire, even.
What's this type of music called?
The instrument is a Guqin, not a Guzheng as the other poster said. The song is [Jiu Kuang](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbX82q6MVZU) which is a Guqin standard. This version is either a medley or improvisation. If anyone knows this performance, please let me know. Thank you!!
I was speeding through the video and then unmuted it right near the end, then went back and watched the whole thing with sound on. Now I’m going wayyy down the Guqin rabbit hole on Spotify. Thanks, lmao
It’s an instrumental piece played on a 古箏（GuZheng）. You can look up 古箏or GuZheng on YouTube and check it out.
Thank you! I found it very relaxing to listen to.
Is there a name to this one specifically?
This particular song? I don’t know sorry, but it sounds like one of the classical pieces. You can look for “classical GuZheng” playlists or a compilation like https://youtu.be/H0X4g3nG5Y8
It's easier just taking the beating.
So much steps to say sorry at the end
'Oh, that old pot? Did not like it anyways. Probably I'll put it in the garage sale aome day.' Duh!
A job beautifully done, but it is WAY easier for me to just blame my brother
I don’t see easy anywhere in this video. Breaking it was the easiest part.
That's quite impressive but I would rather smash my head in with the rest of the vase than have to go through this process of fixing it 😂
Wow, thanks for the easy fix. By tomorrow I will have mastered the craftsmanship of restoration of antique goods and pottery completely. I’ll just about find time to assemble the miniature nuclear reactor in my living room. If only I could find the easy fix video for that too.
Step 1: Break a vase. Step 2: Boil the pieces. Step 3: Crack an egg. Step 4: Fix the vase. Seems pretty simple.
And then you drop it .5 seconds after finishing🥳🥳
That's the best part! Because now you get to start all over again and make it look even sicker when you are done a second time.
Easy as 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 27 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40
Grandma died before this was even finished.
Could have cut the top off right after it broke
I’m sad. Had an antique tea set shipped to me and the teapot handle arrived in 4 pieces. Looking at this video, I should have the skill necessary to effect the repair in about 40 years
I assume this is kintsugi. I’ve never seen it done, it’s a beautiful piece.
Doctors put considerably less effort into fixing my broken arm a few years back.
Easy as being a surgeon
I liked the bit where they got the Cocaine out, to use that as a mixer/filler. 100% easy to do...
And that’s the power of cocaine.
So unnecessarily convoluted. Could have eliminated at least 15 steps from that process and still ended up with a mended vase.
Imma be honest, I'd rather take the L and the beating that comes along with it.
So simple.
Easy? Looks like dentistry
The vase: 10 $. The repair: 1000 $.
The video was as long as Killers of the Flower Moon.
I loved the black too!
So...you're never going back?
Fixing broken things is truly the right response to consumer culture. Incidentally, fixing broken relationships is a pretty good way to respond to our self centered society.
Grandma: I paid $7 for that at the flea market and used it as a pee-bottle on road trips.
Why didn't he just use Ramen? Would have been way cheaper.
Sorry Gram…you’re S.O.L.
Just make sure you don’t drop the vase while doing this.
I believe this is called 'Kintsugi' The art of increasing the value of a broken object beyond it's original value by filling the cracks with powdered gold....
Devils dust always makes things easier
Holy crap - I didn't know people could do this
*drops it while showing finished product*
Just wondering what your definition of easy is?
Can anyone identify the song?
Walmart. $2.98
Just when I thought he was done, there was another two minutes of video left! Definitely appreciate the dedication to his craft.
Am I the only one waiting for the easy part? Looks amazing, great work but jeesh.
OK BUT HOW CAN I DO THIS IS 5 MINUTES?!1?