I've been taking a class on traditional kintsugi (pottery repair with urushi lacquer and powdered metal). So far I'm just learning how to repair chips, not breaks with multiple pieces. I've included a before and after of my first piece, which I'm really excited about!
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in reply to @larkannex's post:
Has your instructor given any indication whether or not kintsugi repairs are problematic for people with wheat allergies? Is the mugi-urushi pretty much completely sealed off, or would it be better to be cautious about serving people with celiac disease on repaired dishware?
this is a great question. this particular piece doesn't use mugi urushi since it's just a chip - there aren't multiple pieces to hold together. But I'll ask him about it and report back. (my guess would be that it would be sealed since it has layers of urushi not containing wheat over top, and the repaired pieces are inpermeable to water, etc. But with celiac even trace amounts are relevant, so I'm not sure.)
Any urushi suppliers come particularly highly recommended or are you all brewing up a big ol pot of poison ivy juice just like grandma used to make? I was under the impression proper urushiol doesn't have much of a shelf life and a lot of the commercial "lacquers" out there were nitrocellulose-based, not suitable for kintsugi fills
my teacher's getting it from contacts in Japan, I would actually have no idea how to get it myself. he did try making it from poison ivy just to see what would happen, and iirc it was kind of similar, but didn't cure right. or maybe it was like weirdly sticky? I can't remember which was poison ivy and which was cashew because he tried it with both.