repair a tea cup with 'tomo-naoshi'

I was asked to repair a chipped Chinese tea cup. It's of Ms K, who is

specialized in Chinese tea.

First, I put 'kokuso', lacquer clay on the chip to fill it. After the clay has dried, shaped it according to the cup line, and then painted it with colored lacquer.
The color is as same as possible with the blue grey surface of the ceramics.

Then paint the rim with brown colored lacquer.

As the painted surface was a little bit puffed up and also had some small particles,

I filed the surface. Finally I polished it to adjust its luster with the ceramics.

                            

teapot of Murata Yoshiki (村田益規)

Ms N handed me a teapot of  Murata Yoshiki   (村田益規)  the lid of which was broken.
Murata Yoshiki san is one of the excellent potters in Tokoname (常滑) where is the most famous place for production area of Japanese teapot (kyusu).
He is very good at modelling teapot using a pottery wheel and recently he has begun to make  Chinese style teapot as well as Japanese style one.
I have once visited his atelier as well.

The lid was broken like this and very tiny pieces were gone.

Assembled tentativley as below.

Then I filled the fissures with 'kokuso' or lacquer clay  and shaped.

The finish is 'tomonaoshi' that means to finish with the same color of the pottery

without spraying gold powder.

This is a Chinese style teapot whose spout and handle are on the same line.

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.

Ms K's teapot of Ito Gafu (伊藤雅風)

I have got to know Ms K at a Chinese Tea Party, called 'bravo! tea party'
where every participant brews a Chinese rock tea.
And brewed well, the leader says 'bravo!' and all people clap hands.

Ms K is specialized in Chinese tea. Her broken teapot is originally a Japanese teapot
made by Tokoname's teapotter Ito Gafu (伊藤雅風) that she uses for Chinese tea.

As its handle is off, I put these two parts together using lacquer and 

fixed them with scotch-tape until lacquer gets dry.

I drew a line on the seam and finished it with silver-colored gold powder.

Eriko san's tea cup: tomonaoshi

Eriko san is my old friend living in Osaka. She had asked me to repair a broken tea cup which belongs to her favorite sencha tea set with five cups.

First I put the pieces together.
Although Eriko san wanted me to finish it with gold powder,
I thought it would be better to use 'tomonaoshi' technique.
Tomonaoshi is a finishing way using the same color with the ceramics so that the
joint lines will disappear or at least will not be that obvious.

This is my first 'tomonaoshi' work, and as I did it in the too short time 

 before I met her in Osaka today, it's far from perfect.

In fact, I would have to take more time to make the same color, to make the surface smooth

and to make the luster the same.

I need more practice.