Taking stock & Kintsugi

Hello my friends, 

After a few postponents of the date for moving we finally moved into our new house mid oktober 2021! Finaly we could start unpacking the boxes and start settling in! Most boxes were already packed in june 2021! Because the original date picked for the move was the end of juli of that year... Which means I have not seen most of my miniatures and craft supplies for almost six months!

A new house means a new craft room. And my third craft room in 5 years is the first one with a view! The room faces north so no direct sunlight will enter the room which is perfect for light sensitive miniatures like some paints and fabrics.

This is a great moment to take stock of my growing collection of miniatures and craft supplies. It is also a good moment to check if everything is in good order and if the move has not caused any breakages or other damages. 

I already had a list of (almost) everything I bought. With a short description of the miniature, its price and the maker or seller. But which plate with a bird on it is the blue and white plate with bird? And which is the blue and white plate with chinese decor with bird/ and one with a large bird...

I know which ones are meant... but can I still keep them apart in 5 or 10 years from now? And is this list of any use if I am the only one who understand which description fits which miniature? A proper inventory should be clear to everyone who goes through it. 

So to come up with a better version I am using photographs to aid the texts. Select a few miniatures, for example made by the same miniaturists. Take a picture of the group (front and back). Making sure that makers marks, when they are present, are visibly photgraphed etc. Number each item in the picture, and write all necessary details per number on the same or the coresponding page(s). And then go on to the next group. And so forth, and so forth...

While taking stock, I have indeed discovered some miniatures that I had forgotten entirely and that I have not shared with you here. How can I have forgotten having these miniatures? I bought them only a few years ago. Not 10 or 20 years... Oh well, I have catalogued these "re-found" miniatures now, so forgetting their existance should not happen again. And I will share them with you soon. 

So far I have not found any breakage or damage due to the move except for one of the legs of my Escutcheon desk that was originally owned by Elly de Kraker. I have repaired it now and the breakline is virtually invisible. Not due to the move but due to my own clumsiness, I dropped and broke one of the seven Kakiemon plates that I made in a workshop by Cocky Wildschut. :-(

Although it is not a consolation for breaking it, I have decided to try to glue it together while adding gold leaf to the breaklines of the reglued plate. This way I try to make it look like it is repaired in the way of Kintsugi.

Kintsugi is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery by mending the areas of breakage with lacquer dusted or mixed with powdered gold. As a philosophy, it treats breakage and repair as part of the history of an object, rather than something to disguise. 

Since the broken plate is meant to be a Japanese one, due to the Kakiemon decor, I find repairing it á la Kintsugi quite fitting. Kintsugi was developed in the 15th century. Although I do not believe that Kintsugi was known/or appreciated in 18th century Europe. 

Here you can see the result of my attempt.  the goldleaf is applied but not yet cleanedlike in the picture below. I do believe that the fine golden lines between the shards are quite lovely. I no longer want to put the plate in a dark corner of a room where noone would take notice of it. 

So in a way my imitation of kintsugi in miniature has helped me to come to terms with the fact that I have broken that plate in the first place. A miniature heal so to speak. :-)

Well, that is it for now my friends. Stay safe and happy. I am only halfway through cataloging my miniatures, so I will just go on with that.

Huibrecht