Into The Blue. Milan. 2023

The Story Behind the Vase

Let me tell you the story about a girl and her vase in Italy. It sounds like the opening of a rom-com, but it was actually the beginning of an unexpected idea.

One of my vases was exhibited during Milan Design Week, and I decided to ship it to Italy. I had shipped many pieces before, including large 45 × 50 cm tables, and everything had always arrived in one piece, so I didn't think twice about it.

The vase was delivered to a friend's mother-in-law in Rome while we were away. When we finally went to pick it up, I knew something was wrong the moment I held the box. It was making a rattling sound. Not a good sign.

We were leaving for Milan the next morning, so there wasn't much time to figure things out. When I opened the box, I discovered that the vase had broken into four pieces. Surprisingly, I felt relieved. I already had an idea of how I could repair it.

I decided to use an epoxy approach rather than traditional kintsugi. The problem? Epoxy hardens in about five minutes, which I conveniently forgot when I mixed all of it at once. The stores were already closed, and when I realized what I had done, I tried to rush the repair.

And then, off the floor went my vase.

Ha!

Now it wasn't four large pieces anymore. It was several pieces of all different sizes.

That's when I panicked. I gave up. I thought I would simply have nothing to exhibit in Milan. I cried, cried it all out, and eventually felt better. I made myself a cup of tea and decided to try again.

This time, I bought super glue and created my own version of a kintsugi approach, using gold acrylic paint to highlight and enhance the breaks.

Kintsugi is the Japanese practice of repairing broken pottery while highlighting the cracks rather than hiding them, traditionally using gold. Its philosophy embraces imperfection and recognizes that damage, change, and even difficult moments can become part of an object's story.

The repaired vase was exhibited in Milan exactly as it was—broken, repaired, and transformed.

And something unexpected happened: I loved it.

The repaired vase was more interesting to me than the original one. The cracks, the fragments, and the visible history of what had happened to it had become part of its beauty. The accident made me wonder: what if I did it on purpose?

What began as an accident in Italy became the starting point for a new idea in my work.

Lots of lessons, laughs, and Italian food made it all worth it.