Miniature exhibition at Virkki Home Museum starting September 9th

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Lecture Sat 13.9.2025 at 1 pm

KATJA SEPPINEN

Kintsugi - golden repair of ceramics

In recent years, Katja Seppinen has been deeply involved in studying the Japanese art of kintsugi. In kintsugi, ceramics are repaired, leaving the traces of the repair visible. The work, which takes months, uses organic urushi wood lacquer and gold. Urushi gives the dishes new life and in the process, the sense of time is lost. Beauty is seen in an imperfect object, patinated by time. Kintsugi invites us to accept the transience and change of life.

Seppinen is a ceramist by training and holds a Master's degree in Cultural Studies of Tourism. She repairs high-quality Finnish ceramic art and, as an unofficial kintsugi ambassador, teaches and lectures on kintsugi around Finland.

In the summer of 2022, Seppinen studied kintsugi and other lacquer art in various parts of Japan and met masters in the field. The most important teachers are lacquer artist, professor Sakurako Matsushima, and her students, lacquer artists Mitsumi Irahara and Mashiyama Akie. Irahara participated as a guest of honor in Finland's first Kintsugi exhibition, Kintsugi Ajan jälkiä, at the Museum of Crafts in the fall of 2024. Distance studies with her continue intensively.

In her artistic work, Seppinen combines kintsugi with materials left by people in the countryside and assembles pieces of ceramics, metal and plastic found in urban spaces and nature into works that can be interpreted as slow souvenirs. The materials for each work are found in the same place, which crystallizes the lived moment.

For Seppinen, kintsugi is above all about immersion, the time spent finding and repairing the material. Long-term practice is the core of the work. Working with Urushi energizes and calms at the same time.