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Repaired tea set project celebrates refugee stories

Jodie Halford & Emma Crossley
BBC News, Essex
UK for UNHCR Six people stand and look at the camera - two men and four women.UK for UNHCR
Ayman, Frozan, Victoria, Bashir, Viktoriia and Sadia have had their stories of coming to the UK shared as part of an art project

A sculptor said she "felt really honoured" to share the stories of six refugees by creating artwork using broken tea sets repaired with gold.

Billie Bond, who trained in Colchester, Essex, and now lives in Suffolk, worked with the UK for United Nations High Commissioner Refugees (UNHCR) to create "Fragments of Hope".

The work incorporates Kintsugi, a Japanese art form that uses gold to repair broken ceramics, which Ms Bond said "symbolises the way that we can rebuild which doesn't ignore the loss and difficulties someone's faced".

It has been created to mark Refugee Week 2025, an arts and culture festival aimed at "celebrating the contributions, creativity and resilience of refugees".

UK for UNHCR Six pieces of pottery are on display, including cups and a teapot. They have clearly been broken and repaired using gold, a Japanese technique called Kintsugi.UK for UNHCR
The pieces in the tea set were repaired using gold as part of a Japanese technique called Kintsugi

Emma Cherniavsky, chief executive of UK for UNHCR, said the charity - which raises funds across the UK to help deliver global humanitarian relief for refugees - was "deeply grateful" to the six people whose stories formed part of the project.

Among the contributors were Viktoriia, Ayman, Sadia, Bashir, Frozan and Victoria - all of whom have come to live in the UK in recent years.

The artwork uses pieces from tea sets in their countries, which were affected by conflict, as well as personal pieces from each of the refugees involved.

Angus Stewart A woman with short, curly grey hair smiles at the camera. She is wearing black rimmed glasses and a black rollneck top. Some sculptures of skeletons wearing white clothing can be sent to the right of her as you look at the image.Angus Stewart
Billie Bond, who trained in Essex and now lives in Suffolk, said hearing the stories of the refugees involved in the project had been "really inspiring"

The idea behind the piece, according to Ms Bond, was to "remind us of how people forced to flee can rebuild their lives piece by piece", with the "gold as a sort of symbol of healing and hope for the future".

"When you hear about refugees you never really hear about the personal side of things and this project highlights individuals and their stories in a creative way... to be part of that was really inspiring," she said.

She said she hoped the project would inspire people "to think about the simple ways that you can support refugees while they rebuild their lives, like offering someone a cup of tea".

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