Ceramic Restoration

We want to send out a hearty congratulations to friend of this blog, and fellow majolica collector Randi Tolsky-Schwartz who had a very nice article written about her talent for ceramic restoration by the Wilmette Beacon.
Randi has had an active restoration business in the Chicago suburb of Wilmette for many years. We had the good fortune to visit her workroom a few years back and must say that her work shelves are filled with some heart-breaking pieces of damaged ceramic. Her ability to restore their beauty, while still making a good living, must be a satisfying way to spend the day.

Randi also runs a retail shop, Raven and Dove in the front of her workroom where she sells a nice upscale selection of decorative accessories, including a beautiful selection of majolica.

Though the article was published a couple of months ago this was our first opportunity to read it and I recommend it heartily. To read it for yourself head on over to the Beacon's Web site.

A Repair Case Study

I recently came across the Web site of a wonderful English majolica restorer, Edge Conservation-Restoration Services in Liverpool, England.
Featured on their site is their restoration of a Holdcroft sugar bowl.

 The first step in the repair is the removal of the old repair.

The pieces are separated and all the old glue removed.
The piece is reglued using an acrylic resin.
Missing pieces were recreated using a polyfill or Plaster of Paris. Missing glaze was mimicked with a colored epoxy paste.
Retouching with dry pigments and a water borne ceramic glaze finish the process. The entire piece is covered with a protective plastic polish.

Here is the finished piece.

This is really extraordinary work!

If you would like to learn more about their services or wish to contact them about your own restoration project, visit their Web site: http://www.edgeconservation-restoration.com/File/category.asp?id=2

Majolica Restoration Nightmare

Who among us doesn't have that one special piece of majolica that desperately cries out for restoration? Sometimes it is a piece with sentimental value that was damaged in a move. Sometimes it's just a piece that was so good that you purchased it in damaged condition. In either event trying to find a good restorer can be a challenge.

I recently came across the Web site of a talented British restoration specialist, Sarah Peek. I wasn't familiar with her work but apparently she has quite a good reputation. She was chosen by Christie's to restore the Minton peacock crest we wrote about in May. (http://etruscanmajolica.blogspot.com/2010/05/for-those-ornithologists-with-80000.html).

On her site she details the restoration work she did on the peacock as well as the restoration of a large Minton majolica fountain step by step. I found it absolutely fascinating and I thought you might too.

One note of interest before we show the restoration: This appears to be the same heron fountain design used in the St. George Fountain to support the kneeling figures of Aphrodite. http://etruscanmajolica.blogspot.com/2010/08/st-george-fountain.html

The fountain came to her completely destroyed. It had sat in a garden exposed to the elements and had seen multiple repairs throughout its lifetime. The fountain was fragmented into over 300 pieces with many missing parts.

The first step was to remove all the old repairs and reassemble the base of the figure around a plaster support. The base ring was assembled separately. Missing parts were filled in to add support.

The body of the fountain was then reassembled using clamps around a central steel dowel for support. Missing pieces were sculpted to fill in decorative details and painted to match.

Finally the supporting clamps are removed and the completed fountain placed on the restored support ring. The final pieces are glued into place while enamels fill in the missing color.

The completed fountain. This is absolutely top caliber work.

If you'd like to contact Sarah Peek's conservation studio for an estimate on your special piece of majolica or, for a more detailed explanation of this and other restoration work, go to her Web site: http://www.sarahpeek.co.uk/index.asp.