I recently received a large, gorgeous American Arts and Craft vase by one of my favorite ceramicists: Artus and Anna Van Briggle. The piece was in perfect shape, except for an elbow that had broken off one of the ladies. The owners had wisely hung on to the broken-off piece. They had not attempted to […]
Blue Van Briggle Vase Repair Read More »
This is an Italian artist’s large sculpture of an elephant rendered in rare cream alabaster. The sculpture was heavy—about as much as I could lift without help. One tusk was missing, the other was broken. It was also in need of thorough and careful cleaning. It was actually so dirty I doubted at first it
Alabaster Repair: Elephant Sculpture Read More »
When this cowboy statue in the style of Fredric Remington arrived at my studio, it had a damaged tail and few other areas with minor chipping. Bronzed Statue Repair: Before Bronzed statue repair requires sculpting the areas that are missing and coating the new areas to match the old areas. The coatings I used contained
Bronzed Statue Repair: An Old West Figure in the Style of Remington Read More »
Here’s me, working on a hundred-year-old metal statue restoration at Old Mesilla’s church on the plaza. The statue was damaged by vandals—the type of vandals, I guess, who aren’t afraid of going to hell for defacing a statue of the Holy Virgin Mary. Old Mesilla, also known as “La Mesilla” or just “Mesilla,” is the
Virgin Mary Statue Restoration at Old Mesilla Church Read More »
This is a fifteen inch wooden statue of Saint Frances that was missing both hands. I found when I was in art school that sculpturing the human form was so easy that I majored in painting instead. Much more challenging. So this piece, like others, uses both the artists skills, painting and sculpture. The hands were
Saint Francis Wooden Sculpture Read More »
This metal statue has a great deco look, but unfortunately the metal was extremely thin in a few places. Part of the base was also broken off and missing. I first reinforced the base and added weights so it would not fall over again. Then I made a mold of the other side of the
Metal Deco Statue Repair Read More »
This beautiful three foot Carrara Marble statue had suffered a break and a very bad glueing job, which was off center. The little finger was also missing. It also was very dirty, requiring hours of work to bring it back to its pristine beautiful white with darker striations. This kind of marble restoration is one of my
Marble Restoration: A Carrara Statue Read More »
Sometimes work is required to undo bad restorations. This 9,000 year-old Pre-Columbian Olmec statue had been restored previously in a manner that the owners found unacceptable. I removed the old yellowed glue and used museum quality pigments and coatings to give the statue a more pleasing appearance.
Olmec Statue Restoration Read More »
This beautiful China Dolls hands were made of very early plastic which was very thin and broken in many places, with fingers missing. To make new hands for a China Doll, I begin by making molds of the existing fingers and created new fingers which were placed on the hands , along with the back
New Hands for a China Doll Read More »
Restoration of a Tang Horse with Rider piece with a broken neck and tail.
Tang Horse Restoration Read More »
This clock has about 20 flowers missing or broken, and 19 leaves missing or broken. But the best part is the summer putti is broken off, and missing. So I get to make a Frankenstein putti, reconstructed using molds I’ll make from the other intact cherubs. I finally found an exact replica
Meissen Four Season Clock Restoration Read More »
With this piece – a porcelain figurine that doubled as a candle holder – I had a de-capitation, another break at the base, a shoe missing, 19 leaves broken or missing, and a large number of petals gone. Although this was a very expensive piece of porcelain, it had mostly sentimental value to the client,
Porcelain Repair: German Candleholder Read More »