During a brief moment in her brilliant ode to triumph over adversity, Beyoncé’s Lemonade visual album features a kintsugi piece. No, not the latest Grammy-nominated album from rock band Death Cab for Cutie. Kintsugi is a type of Japanese reassembled pottery — meant to emphasize the object’s journey and transformation — highlighting with lacquer and/or porcelain glue as well as a dusting of precious metal, previous cracks and damage. The idea is to show that something even more beautiful can be created from the hard work needed to repair cracked porcelain. In other words, to remind us to find the treasure in life’s scars.
The image of the bowl appears at a critical moment in Beyoncé’s journey of intuition, denial, apathy, reformation, forgiveness, hope and redemption.
We later find Jay Z’s grandmother Hattie on her 90th birthday sharing with party attendees, “I had my ups and downs, but I always find the inner strength to pull myself up. I was served lemons, but I made lemonade.” Also presumably speaking about her own maternal grandmother, Louisiana seamstress Agnez Dereon, Beyoncé gives added clarity to the meaning of the album title.
“Grandmother, the alchemist, you spun gold out of this hard life, conjured beauty from the things left behind. Found healing where it did not live. Discovered the antidote in your own kit. Broke the curse with your own two hands. You passed these instructions down to your daughter who then passed it down to her daughter,” says Beyoncé after revealing her lemonade recipe: “Take one pint of water, add a half pound of sugar, the juice of eight lemons, the zest of half a lemon. Pour the water from one jug then into the other several times. Strain through a clean napkin.”
In case you’re looking forward to the opportunity to purchase a pair of your own official Beyoncé Kintsugi Lemonade Jugs, there has been no indication they are forthcoming, but keep hope alive in the Beyhive! In the meantime, perhaps you could make some yourself by following a few simple steps:
1. Select your ceramic pitcher or jug and break it into a few large pieces. You’ll also need epoxy for ceramic on hand, as well as pyrite/mica/gold powder, and a few small wooden matchsticks.
2. On a disposable surface like a paper plate or poster board thoroughly mix about a 1:4 ratio of gold powder to epoxy using the end of a matchstick.
3. Using a fresh matchstick, apply a very thin line of epoxy to one of the broken edges of your piece.
4. Align the relevant pieces and press them together so gold glue seeps out in a fine line along the crack.
5. Follow the instructions on the epoxy to allow the piece to dry.
6. Repeat steps 3 – 5 if other pieces need to be glued.
The glue sets pretty fast, so you should soon be enjoying your homemade version of Beyoncé’s Kintsugi Lemonade.
