Born in Tokyo Japan, Tomomi Kamoshita is a potter and ceramics teacher.
Kintsugi is a gold joinery method that dates back to the 15th century. A way for damaged pottery to be artfully repaired by skilled potters, the cracks and breaks are filled with a gold alloy - traditionally a mix of gold powder and Japanese lacquer called urushi - to seal it back together.
For those familiar with the term 'wabi-sabi', most likely are also familiar with kintsugi - the artistic manifestation of the wabi sabi philosophy celebrating imperfection, incompleteness, and impermanence.
We are happy to announce 2 "Modern Kintsugi" workshop sessions, presented by Maki Aizawa, co-founder of the Sonoma Cultural Exchange on Sunday, March 17th with instructor Tomomi Yamoshita.
Tomomi will teach a modern version of kintsugi that utilizes resin based urushi and brass powder instead of natural resin and gold powder, which can sometimes cause allergic reactions. The instructor brings to the workshop her own style of inventing objects from broken ceramic pieces in an artful mosaic rather than repairing broken pots.
Students who sign up for Tomomi's workshop can choose to learn from 2 types of lessons:
Kintsugi INVENT workshop: participants will create something new from small broken pieces of ceramics (art objects, handles, pendants etc.)
Kintsugi REPAIR workshop: participants will repair a broken ceramic vessel returning them to functional pieces with a gilded history.
Participants who choose the REPAIR workshop must prepare their own broken ceramic vessel in order to participate, and students who choose the INVENT workshop can use shards and broken ceramic pieces provided by the instructor at no extra charge.
Both types of lessons are offered for each session. Tortoise staff members will contact students who sign up to ask which lesson type they prefer. Each session will be 3 hours long at our location in Mar Vista. Minimum age to join is 14 years old.
The 1st session is from 10:15 AM to 1:15 PM.
The 2nd session is from 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM.
Each session is limited to max 8 students and each non-refundable seat is $185. The class fee includes materials to apply kintsugi (and ceramic pieces if requested for the INVENT workshop), as well as a signed copy of Tomomi's book on kintsugi.
Please know that all workshop seats are FINAL sale and cannot be rescheduled or exchanged for other workshop times or dates in the future.
Link to purchase ticket is here!
