Jo Nagasaka from Japan had an ingenious idea to create twin cups while repairing old, broken pottery using an ancient Japanese art. His Twintsugi project, showcased at the “Alamaki! Design in Asia” exhibition at the 2016 Milan Furniture Fair, takes its roots from the Japanese culture as a contemporary interpretation of Kintsugi, the Japanese art of repairing broken ceramics. The pieces are whimsical, beautiful and inspiring.
In ancient times, kintsugi craft was applied to simple housewares using lacquer dusted with gold, silver or platinum. Such recovered pottery was appreciated as works of art, while their “scars” were seen as precious “landscapes” rather than flaws. In the past, joint fixing was a traditional crafts made by hand, but Jo Nagasaki uses modern technology to create his own version of kintsugi. He expresses “joy of joining” by turning broken objects into joined pieces, creating new pieces using additional ceramic instead of applying gold.
To create his Twintsugi collection, Jo Nagasaka used cutting-edge digital technologies including highly precise 3D scanning and modeling. His work is a great example of how the idea of recycling and reuse can turn into a great source of creativity and become a powerful message of how we can improve the things we may have just thrown out.
Images via Maria Novozhilova for Inhabitat Takashi Mochizuki
