When crockery gets broken, it’s the end of a chapter of its life - but not the end of the story. The problem is that we’re all too good at throwing it away and so we miss the rest of the tale.

Fortunately, ceramic artist Joana Meruz doesn't miss a thing. She takes cracked tableware, glazes each fracture in gold, and turns each precious thread into the stem of a painted flower or branch of a tree. The range is called Crackery, and every piece is, of course, unique.

And if the best ceramicist in the world couldn't rescue your crockery, why not take part in the gorgeous and fun 2,000 year old tradition of mosaic making? Every time your tableware breaks, pop the pieces in a bucket - and when the bucket’s full, you're ready to make tesserae. Floors, bathroom walls, or even new pottery - your imagination is the only limit. It’s not often you get to have this much fun with recycling. (As usual, antiquity had it right - from ingenious medieval ceramic repair-work to the potsherd-adorned temple of Wat Arun near Bangkok.) 

Image: The Ornamented Life