Creating Space Series 

Creating Space is a series of wheel thrown pieces that incorporates Yobi-tugi as a metaphor for the beautiful and sacrificial work of creating space for “the other” in our lives and in our communities, only to find that we are more beautiful together. 

What is Kintsugi? 

“Kintsugi, the ancient Japanese art form of repairing broken tea ware by reassembling ceramic pieces, creates anew the valuable pottery, which now becomes more beautiful and more valuable than the original, unbroken vessel.” - Makoto Fujimura, Art + Faith, 2020. 

The word kin in Japanese means “gold” and tsugi means “to reconnect”. Using Urushi (Japanese lacquer) and gold, broken pottery is not only restored, but made new, making the imperfections what makes it most beautiful. It is an apt visual metaphor for the human journey of finding healing, wholeness, and becoming new creations after trauma and brokenness. 

What is Yobi-tsugi?

Yobi-tsugi is a type of Kintsugi that means “calling into mending.” It’s where the Kintsugi method is used to restore a vessel while also introducing fragments of other vessels to fill in the empty spaces. It can be used to help create a metaphor of peace between two warring nations, like the work of Kintsugi Master Nakamura-san who has mended together pottery from North and South Korea as well as other nations in conflict.

Creating Space

Hearts locked tight

like our houses, 

gated like our

communities.

Silent streets greet

the sojourner,

the wanderer, 

the orphaned

the newcomer, 

the lost.

But we are called, 

called into mending, 

called into yobi-tsugi, 

called into friendship, 

into hospitality,

into welcoming

the stranger. 

Called into making

space, 

into wrapping 

The Other

in gold. 

There is sacrifice,

a breaking open, 

an acknowledgement

of our own cracks.

How beautiful

we could be together. 

For it is only 

together 

that we will find

healing. 

By Corrina DiLella Cameron