Imperfection is golden

• • Chiara is a pioneer of the Japanese kintsugi art in Europe
• • She repairs pottery with urushi lacquer and gold dust
• • Her method is completely faithful to the original tradition

Chiara Lorenzetti was 15 when her father gave her two biscuit dolls as a gift. They were vintage objects and pretty damaged, so Chiara decided to repair them. It was the beginning of her career as a restorer. Years later, after studying art and restoration in Florence and taking courses in gold plating on wood and archaeological restoration, in 1991 she set up her workshop in Biella. And then, something happened. A friend of hers suggested that she learn kintsugi, the Japanese art of repairing ceramics with lacquer and gold dust. Kintsugi was almost unknown in Europe at the time, and Chiara was skeptical at the beginning. But she gave it a try, and fell so much in love with it that she studied hard to become an expert, learning first the technique from online tutorials and then investigating the philosophy behind it. In 2023, Chiara published “Kintsugi, the art of repairing with gold”, a textbook dedicated to the technical aspect of her craft as well as to its history and philosophy.