The process of barrel firing is aggressive as the clay vessels are subjected to  very rapid and varying increases in temperature in the wood fire and occasionally the vessels crack under the thermal stress. When this occurs all is not lost and an opportunity arises to create a very special sculpture. After the vessels are cooled and cleaned, the fractured vessels are carefully but deliberately broken apart. The final sculpture is then created by painstakingly reassembling following the Japanese method called Kintsugi (which simply translates to golden joinery) which uses resin and metal leaf such as gold and copper. The joints are highlighted using the metal leaf to emphasise the flaws and the practice is related to the Japanese philosophy of wabi-sabi which calls for connecting with the beauty in the impermanent, incomplete and imperfect.  Barrel firing and kintsugi results in totally unique pieces of ceramic sculpture that can be viewed as a visual metaphor for life.