Adam sent over this link he found on Metafilter: a Makezine blog post on the art of beautiful repair. The post explores the Japanese idea of Kintsugi, which is the art of fixing broken pottery with resin sprinkled with powdered gold. That's right, mending isn't just a practical practice, but can be an art as well. The appreciation of the aesthetic of repair dates back to the 15th century, as has been mostly practiced on ceramics. This essay (PDF) goes in-depth on the history and techniques of Kintsugi, especially its relationship with the tearoom culture in Japan:
A characteristic feature of the use of lacquer to repair ceramics is the fact that, in addition to the wholly practical function of restoring the functional usefulness of cherished ceramic artifacts, lacquer simultaneously also serves as a medium for the artistic and aesthetic transformation of the flawed object through intentional inclusion of the damage. Hence, when restoring with lacquer, the intention is not to render the damage wholly invisible, but rather to use the injury as the central element for the metamorphosis of the damaged ceramic into an objet imbued with new charateristics and with an appearance that exerts a completely different effect.
Ifixit--promoters of self-repair--shares this DIY Kintsugi kit to perform your own beautiful repair. I don't think the gold dust is a requirement of the Kintsugi mindset--Sugru could work just as well.