Photographer Ellen Silverman recently sent us photos of her Kintsugi mending project which we SO admire. We’ve had it on our list to try kintsugi, the Japanese way of repairing broken things with the mend celebrated rather than hidden. Ellen repaired two beloved vessels in no time, while amplifying their history and personal meaning, and the ideas of impermanence and imperfection.
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Every passage we read in our treasured Wabi-Sabi for Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers seems to apply to the unexpected marvel we found…by looking…
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In his installation at the Maruhiro Flagship store in Nagasaki prefecture, Japanese designer Yusuke Seki used 25,000 pieces of imperfect ‘Shinikiji’ ceramics as bricks, stacking them to create a platform/floor to support simple timber plinths that showcase the products on sale. Feeding into our serious “brick love“, we looked closer into how Seki transformed the pottery into…
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In our continueing search for examples of the incorporation of organic and decayed materials with modern functionality, we present Australian architect Raffaello Rosselli‘s lovely repurposing a corroding tin shed in Sydney to create a small office and studio apartment.
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Recently, we came across a house tour of a highly renovated apartment in Madrid. It included one “before” picture that made our heart sink: OMG, we thought, look what they covered up! During the demolition, a beautifully textured wall was revealed.
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In many parts of the world that which is old and imperfect is more highly cherished and valued than that which is new. Brand new Turkish rugs are often abraded before selling, their colors softened by dealers eager to increase their price by having them appear imperfect, used, showing their history. In Persian, they call…
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Maria Robledo sent this image of one of the first plums her plum tree yielded. What might seem like a blemish could be seen as something else althogether: the perfection (and magic) of imperfection. Thanks Maria! Related posts: brilliant graffiti: ‘you are (not) perfect’ ‘seeing’ is a practice (look what’s hidden in plain sight) ‘the…
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We were instantly smitten with this kitchen, for its spareness and simplicity (on the upper East side of Manhattan no less), but especially for the marble slab table with a rough, unfinished edge. Such a simple detail to leave undone, yet the effect is bold and surprising. It could be done with any stone surface.…
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We were talking about imperfection, wabi sabi, and how messy the creative process is when, out of the blue, David Saltman said “The imperfect is our paradise.” He looked surprised and then said “Wallace Stevens.” He had called up from memory the best line of a famous Wallace Stevens’ poem called The Poems of Our…
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Wabi sabi is a Japanese way of appreciating the beauty of impermanence and imperfection. Plum blossoms, the theme of many great Japanese poems and paintings, are a perfect expression of wabi sabi: they are beautiful, fragrant and hardy, but they only last for a few days. When you focus your heart on plum blossoms you…
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