Kintsugi materials, brushes
There are several types of brushes for kintsugi. For most lines a medium brush will suffice, for getting the finest lines either a fine or very fine brush will be necessary. All are natural fiber and handmade in Japan. They should be cleaned with vegetable oil and stored with a very thin coating of oil which needs to be removed before use.
Monthly Archives: March 2016
Kintsugi materials, polishing tools
Kintsugi materials, polishing tools
These tools work for polishing fine powder metals and some of the finer graded metals. They are best for thin line polishing. If you try to polish wide areas it is more difficult to get a good, smooth finish.
Current kintsugi projects
Here is what I am working on.
The glaze repair bowls had bubbled glaze when they came out of the kiln. I have used a grinder to get that off and now have a good base of lacquer which I am sanding. One I will finish in gold, the other in silver.
The chip bowl is one I was going to do yobitsugi on but decided to just build it up instead. I will use hemp fiber on it.
Kintsugi materials, mawata
Kintsugi materials, mawata Mawata is a silk based, cotton type material. Regular cotton doesn’t have the natural oils that are necessary to keep from sticking to the metal. You use it to either apply metal to the lacquer or to slightly buff out metal that is already applied to the piece.
Kintsugi materials, mixing lacquer
Kintsugi materials, jozuri, top layer Japanese lacquer
Jozuri is a top layer lacquer. The one I sell is a Japanese made lacquer. Some places sell Chinese made zuri and it has about 1/3 to 1/4 of the urushiol that Japanese made does.
You don’t use jozuri unless you are using graded metals. It is used for filling in the metal so it can be polished.
Kintsugi materials, nashiji lacquer
Materials, kintsugi, middle black, nakaguro
Middle black lacquer is used over both sabi, (jinoko or tonoko/lacquer mix) and mugiurushi, (flour/lacquer mix) as a layer to give you a smooth finish. Without a middle layer of lacquer it is very difficult to get a smooth enough finish to successfully apply a top layer of lacquer and then metal. Middle lacquer is not as hard as top lacquer.
Materials, kintsugi, red lacquer
Red lacquer is used in kintsugi for a substrate for metal. It is a good quality lacquer that can be polished out to a high sheen and is harder than middle lacquers.
