a mug from Portland, USA

My daughter and her boy friend have been to Portland in USA 

to spend holidays this year.

There she bought a mug made by a local potter. But when she came back to Tokyo,

she soon broke its handle inattentively.

She asked me to fix it because it recalls her happy holidays in Portland.

As it was a very heavy mug , I decided to fix it by putting inner wire.

I drilled holes at both sides of all broken parts and put a wire into each hole,

and assembled with lacquer.

I finished it with powder of silver.

painting on matcha container (natsume)

I like putting 'makie：蒔絵’　(lacquer painting) on matcha containers or 'natsume'.

In the kintsugi workshop I could paint on a plain lacquered wood plate or on a ceramic saucer

which are easier to paint.

Natsume, on the contrary, difficult to paint because of the curve.


The one with gold fish is not from traditional pattern.

My teacher said,

 'Goldfish on natsume?? ...hmmm,seldom to be seen (on the tea ceremony).'

I gave it to a friend who likes to drink matcha.

The other ones are from traditional pattern.

Putting seashell (raden: 螺鈿） takes time but makes the work more gorgeous.
I gave the work below to a friend who loves Japanese tea.

eggshell or 'rankaku ：卵殻'

The 'rankaku' technique uses eggshell.

The picture below shows the finish of rankaku using eggshell of hen.
First, glue small pieces of eggshell on the surface of ceramics or lacquer ware with lacquer,
and then fill the gap between pieces with black-colored lacquer, and then polish it after drying.

Rankaku is used for covering repaired surface of kokuso (lacquer clay),

and is also used for makie (lacquer painting) as below.

Recently I made lilies with rankaku on a tea container (natsume: 棗).
This is not the eggshell of hen  but that of koturnix which is thinner.