Whangārei workshop report: Kintsugi Workshop

On Saturday 22nd July, Whangārei Timebank ran a Kintsugi Workshop, tutored by Mui Leng Goh from Soul Nectar (www.soulnectar.co.nz).

Organised essentially for its members, but also open to the general public, it was well attended by Timebank members as well as non-members.

We gathered in the wonderful venue of St Stephen’s Church in Onerahi where Mui Leng began by recounting the history of kintsugi - the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with gold! She then led us through a mindfulness practice introducing everyone to the philosophy behind kintsugi – which is similar to the Japanese philosophy of wabi-sabi, the act of embracing and celebrating the flawed or imperfect. We were able to appreciate how the repair effectively made the pottery more beautiful, than if it had not been broken and how traditionally makes it more valuable and treasured.

Mui Leng demonstrated the art of the repair and then everyone got stuck into working with their pieces of pottery. The concentration was palpable with some profound silence, broken by laughter and excited chatter.

This was an extremely enjoyable and great fun workshop in which strangers become friends; creativity flourished; new skills were learnt and useless pieces of pottery (possibly destined for landfill) were made whole and even more beautiful!

Timebank membership increases through workshops like these, where members mix with non-members who leave inspired to join the growing Timebank family. While Timebank members paid in Timecredits, others contributed koha.

By opening these workshops to the wider community, Timebank is facilitating greater collaboration between its members and the general public, building local networks and fostering community resilience at a grassroots level.

This highly informative and fascinating event was made possible with the support of:

www.wdc.govt.nz/funding #creativecommunitieswhangarei #whangareidistrictcouncil #whangareicommunity