On Saturday I broke one of two bowls left by an old roommate, spilling hot fried rice on myself, the floor, and the countertop. I salvaged the pieces as I cleaned up and Stevie ate bits of scattered scrambled egg.

My heart became immediately fixed to executing a kintsugi craft on this poor bowl, and, with a manic energy I sometimes get when so inspired, I watched less than 5 minutes of TikToks before concluding that I had everything I needed in my apartment to achieve my vision. I gathered some old eyeshadow from my early Peter Pansexual drag days and concluded that I would start the project after coming back from practice with Adam for our show on the 24th. In an obvious sign of serendipity, I found an eyeshadow palette of brilliant colors on the sidewalk just outside the rehearsal space as we left. I explained to Adam, mostly out of reassurance to him that I was not crazy enough to put the makeup on my face, what my intentions were for it.

Back home, I made a custom blend from several eyeshadows to make something akin to copper. I then applied some Gorilla glue I had on hand and mixed it in with the powder. It is at this point where a meditative pause would have served me, namely, to stop and put on some gloves, which I do whenever I paint in oils and am surprised that I didn’t think to do it here.

This stage in the craft is where heavily edited social media content makes it look all too easy, but in reality, is a challenging and, for me anyway, messy process. At one point, I stopped to put on gloves, but soon took them off upon thinking about the pickle I would be in if the glue dried from the inside. I powered through, with a bit of the dyed glue on my forehead, neck, and mostly on my hands. “Is it permanent?” Sam asked, after I assured her that I read it wasn’t, but, over dinner, found myself Googling it again. “It will take 5-7 days.”

(already much better 2 days afterwards, trust!)

There is a lot I will do differently the next time I repair something with kintsugi (Googled “kintsugi verb” and that isn’t a thing), besides wear gloves. I want to check out this book by Michihiro Hori and experiment with color and adhesive. I also don’t want to do what I see other people do which is purposefully break something in order to fix it in the kintsugi method.

I made this kimchi grilled cheese recipe today before sitting down to scrape away at the glue left over from my feverish execution. Highly recommend this sandwich, it is KILLER.

(fuckmeup with those fried cheese bits)

This is very much an imperfect bowl that falls short of the beauty that comes with the craft of kintsugi, but I am still very much pleased with it as an introduction to another art form, and philosophy that I am familiar with in other mediums and realms of life.

(made a mess of my desk, as well)

(sorry, Diane)

(1 to 9 and back to 1 again!)

I am grateful to break a nice bowl during a long weekend so I could indulge in yet another hobby, as I am intent on this becoming something I do again. Seriously, if you have any busted up pottery, feel free to send it my way. I’m obsessed.