Pottery made to order | repair and restoration studio in Southern Delaware

Ceramic / Sculpture Repair Levels

Page Updated on:
9/25/2023

pottery repair types, seamless, museum or Kintsugi gold

1) SEAMLESS - BEST LEVEL BUDGET: This option provides you with a complete restoration process for ceramic, china, pottery, porcelain, sculpture (stone or metal) items. It includes removing old glues (if any, at possibly additional fee), preparing surfaces for cementing, mending broken pieces using archival clear two-part heavy duty epoxy with 3,700 PSI tensile / shear strengths heated at 140 degrees F for optimum curation. This restoration level also includes filling in gaps, chips or missing pieces. Larger missing pieces will be sculpted. Repaired surfaces will be sanded, polished, and primed. This process includes testing and verifying surfaces with UV / Black Light for smoothness. The last step is matching shades and colors, glazing to the right reflection level (e.g., matt, glossy or anything in between) with a clear coating providing very hard finish.


2) SEAMLESS - MID LEVEL BUDGET (save about 15% of Best Level cost): This option is similar to the above but surface smoothness and color matching may be less perfect and we pay less attention to the bottom and inside of vessels. Choose this option if having a perfect surface area and / or precise color or glaze matching are not that important to you. The difference between Best and Mid level to a casual observer is nominal except for bottom or inside of vessel where less detailed work was implemented. It will still be a very acceptable job.


3) KINTSUGI REAL OR GOLD EFFECT: Translation from Japanese means "golden joinery". This technique transforms broken ceramic vessels into beautiful works of art using 23.5K gold or effect (see process) to enhance breaks or the attachment of shards and in doing so giving an aesthetically pleasing and unique way to repair broken pottery. Gold effect is not the only color of Kintsugi repair. Other powdered metals can be used as well, including silver, bronze, or copper. This option is often less costly than our Mid and Best level repairs. However, Kintsugi repair using real 23.5 karat gold cost is about 2 1/2 times greater compared withthe the Gold Effect option.

More about Kintsugi offering

Mending with gold - Kintsugi
Kintsugi

4) ANCIENT REPAIR (Visible): This museum-type repair requires that the vessel surfaces will not be affected or covered by paint or any other material. The repair lines and missing pieces are filled illustrating the missing pieces and the repair lines as shown in the photo on the right. Filler color can be discussed and mutually agreed with customer. Ancient Pottery Repair

5) CEMENTING ONLY: We do not offer "Cement Only" - sorry!

6) DIY: We have created some tutorials for those of you that prefer to try it at home using more commercially available materials. See Several Lessons at different levels with detailed information and illustrations.



Do it yourself


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