Golden Joinery
Each fragment is rejoined with layered urushi lacquer and finished in powdered gold, so the mend reads as part of the vessel's biography.
Where the break becomes gold.
Kintsugi Atelier restores broken vessels in urushi lacquer and powdered gold — every fracture rewritten as a luminous seam.
The Craft
Repair as ornament
Fifteenth-century joinery, practiced as living heritage. The mend is never hidden — it is gilded.
Honest Imperfection
Seams follow the true fracture lines — slightly irregular, never machined — honoring the wabi-sabi conviction that flaw is character.
Heirloom Aftercare
Every restoration includes a care scroll, humidity guidance, and a complimentary seam inspection each year for the next decade.
The Process
How a mend unfolds
Kneel & Assess
Send photographs of the fragments. Within three days our conservators map every fracture and quote a fixed restoration path.
The Slow Join
Fragments are bonded with layered urushi over several weeks — lacquer cures only in warm humidity, and the seam is built entirely by hand.
The Gold Appears
A final coat of urushi is dusted with gold before it sets. Your vessel returns with its break illuminated, ready for tea.
Commissions
Choose the depth of gold
Fixed pricing agreed before lacquer is mixed. No surprises — only seams.
First Mend
$120one vessel · 6–8 weeks- Ceramics up to 15 cm
- Standard gold seam
- Digital care notes
Studio Restoration
$390up to three vessels · 8–10 weeks- Mixed gold & silver seams
- Lacquered storage box
- Annual seam inspection
Ancestral Commission
$1,400museum-grade · up to 4 months- Family crest in gold on the mend
- Conservator's provenance scroll
- Priority queue
Voices
What the mended say
“The bowl my grandmother dropped in 1961 came back more beautiful than I remember it. The gold seam runs exactly where the sorrow was.”
“As a conservator I distrust decoration. Their seams are structural, archival, and quietly magnificent. I now send our damaged tea ware to them.”
Questions
Before the lacquer
Is a kintsugi repair food-safe?
Fully cured urushi is inert and safe for tea and dry foods. We advise resting the seam from boiling liquids for the first month while it hardens completely.
How long does a restoration take?
Most vessels take six to eight weeks; urushi cures only in warm, humid stillness, so we never rush the join. Ancestral commissions may take up to four months.
Will the repair hide the break?
Never — that would undo the point. Kintsugi honors the accident: the gold seam makes the vessel's history its finest feature rather than its shame.
Your broken piece is not finished.
Send us the fragments; we will return a story in gold. Join the Atelier letter for restoration stories and studio openings, once a month.