Monday 30 March 2009

The Great Train Wreck



Not all things that come into a ceramic restoration studio are made of ceramic. Objects of wood, ivory, and small stone pieces come in and can be treated using the same techniques.

If an object belonging to another specialty in restoration comes into a studio they should be referred to a specialist. The treatment of canvas paintings or book/archival restoration, for instance, is very different and would require specialized set up, tools and expertise.

Here's an interesting artisasal lamp made of tree fungus, plant material and wood. The little tracks are made of bark strips. Now you're thinking - I have something like this in a box under the cottage with two inches of dust on it. Well, that is approximately the state that this lamp was in.

So first of all it had to be cleaned - Original colour was underneath, but totally obscured by dust and greasy dirt. Many elements of the 'terrain' were loose or off - stones, fungus and pine cones which were the 'trees'. Parts of the train and it's track had to be reassembled and attached to the lamp base.



The fun part was adding new material to complete the picture. Holes were left where plant material was lost in the past. The stones, pine cones and moss were cleverly chosen by the artisan to be porportional to the scene. 

A quick trip to the garden and some 'tall trees' were found - actually dried Siberian orostachys and astilbe plumes. The bright green paint on the pine cones is original. Because the colours overall had to be a little re-saturated due to drying over time, I gave the whole thing a light dusting of a matte crystal clear spray - one of the few times I would allow myself this luxury.

Cute - isn't it? 

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