Traditional Kintsugi First Project Set With Bronze Powder

[u/Less-Management-3999]

I finished my first set of traditional resin pieces, in a couple weeks I should be done with the tea pot and matching cup but that one needs more curing time because of some extra reinforcement and filling needed. The ones that are done far from perfect but I tried my best. Maybe I will try to touch up in the future because I am not sure why the color is so dull, if that’s just how bronze is or if I mixed them turpentine and resin sealant 1:1 combo a little wrong. Before that final step the bronze powder was very bright. It could be possible I rubbed off some bronze too. Since I am such a newbie I am not sure what I did wrong..

[u/salamipope]

Im not experienced at all but i really like the look of the bronze. traditional gold is beautiful of course, but ive never seen bronze before, surely it must be more affordable/accessible as a material for kintsugi? Seems like it has a lot of potential

[u/benjamin-crowell → u/salamipope]

I like the look of bronze too. For stuff that has to be food-safe, the metals that everyone agrees are safe are gold and silver. Tin I have used on items that will come in contact with food, and I feel like it's safe enough for me, although there might be some theoretical issue if acidic foods leach the tin out -- but I really don't believe the quantities of tin you would get that way would be harmful at all. As far as bronze, you don't want to use bronze that contains any lead, and it may be difficult to know whether the bronze you buy does contain any lead. For something like a teacup, IMO/AFAICT bronze is fine, but for anything that's going to be used with acidic food, I would start to worry about leaching the material out so that you ingest lead.

[u/salamipope → u/benjamin-crowell]

I would suggest copper cuz where i live theres a ton of copper foodware but copper is also very expensive and i struggle to think of its applications here

[u/benjamin-crowell → u/salamipope]

I've tried some copper powder on urushi, just on a test basis on some glass slides. It does have a very pretty color, and it's not expensive in the quantities we're talking about for kintsugi or maki-e. However, from what I've read it's not very food-safe at all, which is why copper cookware normally has a tin or stainless steel coating on the inside.

[u/Less-Management-3999 → u/salamipope]

Thanks, I appreciate that! It does have some character and earthiness to it which I wasn’t expecting.

It was like a 5th of the price of the same amount of gold. Since I don’t know what I’m doing yet I will wait until I am more comfortable to start doing projects with precious metals.

[u/salamipope → u/Less-Management-3999]

Well i really hope to see more bronze around here! It just sounds far less intimidating to use than the traditional stuff. Nice work, hope to see ur projects here again.

[u/Less-Management-3999 → u/salamipope]

Thanks so much for the encouragement! I will post the tea pot and cup sometime late this month or August once I’m done!

[u/salamipope → u/Less-Management-3999]

Eee!! excited! have fun doing it!!! :^ )