Ceramic surgeon fixes it

Artisan combines a modern touch with traditional technique to repair broken items, Li Yingxue reports.

A zipper runs along a 40-centimeter-tall porcelain vase, with its top slightly open. The art piece, not originally designed that way, has been repaired by Nie Chao.

Nie, 41, is an inheritor of Zibo-style ceramic-mending from the city in Shandong province. Each tooth of the zipper was handmade and tapped onto the vase by Nie. It took him around a month to finish the work.

He named it Puyun ("appeal of simplicity"), inspired by the traditional Chinese dress, qipao. He has made the static vase look like a movable dress in the wind.