Introduction: Golden Repair

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About: During the COVID-19 crisis, all of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship's religious services moved into an online-only format. I generally organize Sunday school activities for the children of the Fellowship …

In this week's story, two brothers get the power to turn things into gold, and the narrative opens discussions about responsible capitalism - we live in a world in which money is necessary in order to survive, but how much? And how do we balance that in the world around us? There's a difference between having enough to be comfortable and secure and having so much that wasteful spending becomes a norm.

One of the things that people sometimes spend lots of money on is STUFF. And when that STUFF breaks, the impulse is to throw it away and get new stuff. Fixing broken things is a more responsible way to engage in capitalism, and it's better for the environment, too!

Since the story is about turning things to gold, the Japanese practice of kintsugi, repairing broken pottery with gold, came to mind. Things break, and it's nice to make the truth of that more beautiful! If you happen to have a piece of broken pottery or other broken item, you can fix it with gold hot glue, easily available at craft stores like Michael's. Alternatively, you can make a symbolic broken pot with paper and scrap aluminum foil!

Supplies

For fixing a broken item:

-the item in question

-a hot glue gun

-gold hot glue

For making a paper pot:

-construction paper

-markers

-aluminum foil

-scissors

-glue

Step 1: Glue Your Broken Pottery

Load your gold glue stick into your glue gun and let it heat up, being very careful with it! I found that hi-temp worked much better for keeping the pottery pieces together. (If you are a younger human, you might want to get a grown-up to help with this.)

Once the glue is at a melting point, quickly line your breaking points with hot glue. Because my piece of broken pottery had such a large break-point, it was a little tricky to work fast enough to get it glued down! It will be easier with smaller pieces. Once the glue sets, you can go over it again on the outside to make it look prettier.

Step 2: Make a Paper Vase

If you don't have something broken to fix or any hot glue, you can still make a pretty piece of mended pottery to remind you of the story's message!

Draw a vase or other piece of pottery on your construction paper, decorating it however you like. Cut it out.

Step 3: "Break" Your Vase

Then, cut your vase into fragments! These can be as big or small as you like, but remember, you'll have to piece it back together again!

Step 4: Color Your Foil Gold

Take an orange, yellow, or gold marker, and color in an area of your foil a little larger than your vase. It doesn't have to be exact! The foil will make it shiny.

Step 5: "Mend" Your Vase

Glue the pieces of your broken pottery onto the foil, leaving little spaces between the pieces to let the gold shine through. Then, cut out the shape.

Step 6: Admire Your Beautiful Broken Things!

Broken things are beautiful.