As an aspiring graduate student in 1974, it never occurred to me that those persistent cracks pestering my porcelain could actually be a good thing. As I struggled to control the fissure-prone character of my preferred clay body, I continued to address these stress fractures exclusively through the eyes of a European-influenced concept of perfection. Raku introduced me to the impact that process plays in the ultimate appearance of a piece, but it wasn't until I delved deeper into Eastern aesthetics through the study of Muromachi- and Momoyama-period artwork along with Zen philosophy that I made the conceptual leap from Raku to vitreous porcelain. At that point those previously annoying cracks were reintroduced as an integral element in the ultimate character of my pieces—a critical component of the object's physical provenance. It was in this frame of mind that my fascination with Kintsugi was born.
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