Post #144882 by I dream of tiki on Sat, Mar 5, 2005 7:14 PM

More info. This may not be specifically to tiki mugs, but gives a vague layman's idea.

Say the to-be-restored part is a chip or a small peice broken off that you want the restorer to recreate. The price tag vastly depends on the amount of man hours for completion.
He/she determines whether the peice is made from hard porcelain or soft porcelain. (Will research what that means in terms of firing, if necessary.) When the gap is filled, shaped, etc., the restorer, who really is an artist, will paint to match and glaze. Very rough details, I know.

So, it can be done. I was shown many peices that you have no idea that they were ever damaged. However, it is a very labor intensive process to make like new.

Which brings up the two kinds of restoration. I had the basic gluing and minor paint done to the urn I took in. This is equivalent to museum quality. The collector, on the other hand may prefer it to look like it was never broken, thus the labor intensive work and the HIGH price that goes along with that.

A good restorer will gaurantee their work.

Not meaning to highjack a thread, how have our fellow tiki collector gone to have a better quality peice? Would you rather buy it again in better condition or take the hit to restore it to impecably new?

[ Edited by: I dream of tiki on 2005-03-05 19:17 ]