"Kintsugi" (金継ぎ), literally translated as "gold joinery," is the Japanese art of repairing pottery with lacquer containing gold powder.

While most repair techniques attempt to conceal and restore an item to its former glory, kintsugi highlights the cracks with a visible gold join to show that the breakage was part of the object's history - and at the same time, creating an evolved version of what was once before.

Kintsugi is a form of Wabi-Sabi that embraces imperfection as part of its beauty.

We all have a story to tell about our scars - I have a deep scar on my ankle, which I got from my leg getting trapped under a playground roundabout as a child.

However, not all scars are visible on the outside but remain with us as scars in our memory. While some of these memories may have been an ordeal, these experiences are the kind that mold us into who we are today.

I wanted to use the art of kintsugi to represent the invisible scars that we bear - be it an ordeal that we experienced - or a fight with an invisible illness.

I've had my fair share of ordeals throughout life - some of the events have left me with sadness, frustration, confusion, anger, and questions about why I was chosen to go through all that poo.

However, it's only now that those questions are being answered - I realize that without those ordeals, I would not be who I am today doing what I do - and for that, I am grateful. 

As for the ordeals that I continue to face - "bring it on!" I say ;-)

Kintsugi is a process that takes time and patience to repair a breakage - recovering from an ordeal is no different and will take time. But just like kintsugi, your scars from an ordeal are a testament that you have unlocked an evolved version of yourself.

Relentless is a reminder that the days that break you are the days that make you. The mended kintsugi cracks are a visualization of all the times when something (or someone) tried to break you - but ended up making you even more relentless.

Reasons Not To Buy

1. Our Smart Dolls are hand-painted, and even though we use paint masks, no two Smart Dolls will ever be the same. Face painting entails slight splashes, but this is more noticeable with the gold kintsugi paint - they kinda look like electric sparks. Zoom in on some of the photos to see what I mean. 
2. The gold kintsugi paint has a shimmer, differing in strength depending on the lighting condition - darker lighting - less shimmer.
3. As the kintsugi mark is located on the contours of the face, depending on the lighting condition, the shimmer will not be even due to the way shadows are cast on the face. If you expect the shimmer to be constant no matter the lighting condition, you will be disappointed with this product.
4. The kintsugi mark may have blurred or sharp edges like any facial component.
5. There are no plans to release Relentless without her kintsugi mark.
6. We can't do special requests to create a version of Relentless without her mark. 
7. Folks have asked about kintsugi body parts - no plans right now, but it is something that I may consider in the future. If we eventually make kintsugi body parts, we can't give them away for free or at a discount.
   
   If you want to try to make your own kintsugi parts, this paint is similar to what we used for prototyping, but you will have to mix in some brown and reds.

About Interstellar Blue

2022/05/20 update : As the blue run nears its end, we want to squeeze out a few more blue Smart Dolls but in order to do so we need to swap the head cap to orange.
From today, any blue dolls ordered on the Smart Doll online store will come with an orange head cap. Please do not buy if this bothers you ;-)

Production of the interstellar blue skintone ended up being more of a burden than originally planned in terms of workflow, inventory management (moisture, light control), factory schedule planning and so on. We can only make blue at the sacrifice of the other skin tones in small batches.

We are more forgiving in terms of blemish checks for Interstellar Blue. A blemish that may get rejected in other skin tones may be approved for sale.

Blue characters and vinyl option parts will have a higher price point. The caveat is that if we feel the team is getting slammed, we will release less than originally planned (hey that rhymes!) Remember that an overworked employee building a doll is never a good sign as their broken soul would possess a Smart Doll which would come after you while you sleep.