End of January already

Hi everyone!

Just wanted to drop a note and say hello. It's hard to believe January is pretty much over, and so is my week of holidays. In my mind I had wanted to go somewhere for the week, like Mexico, and enjoy some sun. I decided to stay home and have a week at home. It's been pretty busy. I've added a few pages from my website to here since it shut down last week.

Also did a fair bit of video creation. I saw the Chiseled Ice Festival mid-week, before things started to warm up and melt the sculptures too much. As it was, some of the finer pieces of ice had already broken off. They were still lovely to look at.

Also went for a walk in the creek valley. I had been seeing what I thought were Ruffed Grouse during the week, and was hoping they would move into the creek valley and set up residence. However, I reviewed the footage I had taken of the group over at the gas plant, and realized those ones were likely Grey Partridge.

I still feel like some of the other birds I saw were Ruffed Grouse but I'm not really a partridge or a grouse expert. I went for a walk hoping to find some of their tracks in the snow, which are always cute to see as they look like little stars, or their pellets which look like All Bran (nothing against the cereal, it's delicious. That's just what they look like). But there was nothing out there. I was a little disappointed, but I had a good time anyway.

The creek is also starting to melt in spots, as you can see in the photo. I usually don't trust myself to walk on the ice but it really is amazing seeing all the trees and tall cliffs from the viewpoint of the creek.

For my last day off, hopefully we can go for a walk out at Elk Island. I will probably have to wrap my knee up in a brace to help it manage against the ice, and make sure I have my cleats with me as the melting snow wrecks havoc on my knee.

I've also been forewarned that I am heading back into a disaster zone. Two of my coworkers are off, one due to medical leave and the other to take care of their spouse who just had surgery. I feel like I'm going to need another holiday after a couple of weeks.

Life is not a static thing, neither is a blog. Kintsugi project to fix broken pottery

Not sure if you're a regular of this blog, or if you've binge-read a whole bunch of posts. But I've been looking through my old posts and fleshing out the stories within them, and adding updates, photos, and videos that I've created that fit along with the blog page themes.

So, if you have read the blog a long time ago, you might be interested to go re-visit some of the old pages. Think of it like a virtual Easter egg hunt. Except without chocolate.

A few years ago I traveled with my sister to Mexico for a week. We had a great time, and I bought a couple of pottery bowls. Unfortunately when I got home, one of the bowls had shattered into a number of pieces.

Upset, but not deterred, I decided to fix the bowl. I read online about kintsugi, the Japanese method of fixing broken pottery to make it useable again, and creating more of a one of a kind piece than before. The word translates to "golden joinery." I think they use nails to actually fix the pieces together and real gold, but I didn't want to try anything that detailed.

The neat thing about kintsugi is that it sometimes is considered a bit fashionable, and I read about some people/potters that would purposely break their pieces just to fix them and create a unique piece.

So, I bought some good glue, and gold paint. Not real gold paint, and it's probably not food safe, but I used it anyway. I decided I would not put the bowl in the dishwasher and it would be used more as a decoration.

I started by gluing the pieces together, and then adding the paint to finish sealing the pieces and fill in the gaps where the pottery had turned to dust.

Piece by piece, the bowl came back into shape. I was pleased with the final result, as it has a handmade look mixed with the handmade painting. A bit rough, but I wanted it like that.

It's now a cool decoration in the living room, and I use it for chips and other non-liquid foods. The other bowl is still intact, and is one of my favourite bowls for making my morning oatmeal with.

After finishing, I also ended up making another small fix on a small Japanese cup decorated with a cherry blossom that I had inherited from a friend a long time ago. The handle had broken off, and so I glued that back on. It turned out pretty good.

You never know what you can do until you try.

What do you think? Have you used kintsugi to fix a broken item? Would you try to do it, too?