6
votes
House Kintsugi
Hey team, I live in a dilapidated sharehouse that will inevitably be torn down. So we can kinda do whatever to it. It has this thin crack in the wall and I was thinking about trying to use the Kintsugi idea and applying it to a house, fill the gap with gold. Does anyone have any idea about the best way to go about this? I have some powder grout, I was thinking about mixing it with some gold acrylic paint and a tiny bit of water to make it into the right paste consistency. I like this approach as I own all the stuff.
Unorthodox, but I say go for it. Usually the gold is applied after the mending of the cracks, so you could alternatively grout it first and paint ut second. Would probably give a brighter gold finish than mixing it with the grout. But seeing as the grout isn't going to be structural you can probably do whatever.
Sounds like a brilliant idea no matter the implementation :)
If you want to try to emulate the idea of Kintsugi the closest, you'll want to figure out how to get a shiny texture into a joining compound. It doesn't have to be gold colored, kintsugi uses silver and platinum as well, so a shiny silver would also make sense in your emulation.
I personally would try to use a grout, because it usually comes dry and it would be easiest to mix without buying new equipment. Found an article here that might help: (https://blog.mosaicartsupply.com/how-to-color-grout/). Skimming through it, I would definitely consider mixing and drying small test batch to make sure it's the color and shade you want before applying.
What the wall is made of? I think of grout as being used for tile, but maybe the terminology differs. My only caution about adding the pigment to the grout is the grout is usually made to be smeared over the crack and then wiped off. If the pigment you add doesn't wipe off the wall cleanly, then it might work better to grout it and then paint over the grout, even though that's not the true kintsugi way.
Regardless of the material, I'd say either make yourself a separate test piece to try it out on, or pick a small, unobtrusive part of the wall that's hidden by furniture. Then you'll have a better idea what's involved. It sounds like a very neat project! I hope you'll share a picture when it's done.
You could try gold leaf over the filled crack instead of aiming to get a similar effect with mixed gold paint and grout. My experience with gold-colored paint as a mix-in with other materials is that the metallic flakes can react with acid or alkali in the base compound and turn greenish. Just leave the grouted crack a little underfilled so you can see the outline, then do the standard gum arabic and leaf over it, then buff.
If it's a big area that would be too expensive to leaf, Culture Hustle has a couple of very good gold paints that might suit the purpose.