Luel Restoration Studio

Luel Restoration Studio - Home 

Greetings, 

A lot of our clients ask us about the ceramic and porcelain restoration classes that Luba conducts a few times a year, depending on Luba’s availability and on how many people sign up. A man from Chicago called yesterday and wanted to buy a How-To-Restore Ceramic and Porcelain Items videotape that he’d heard Luel Restoration Studio was selling. 

Allow me to clarify the myth – we don’t sell any video tapes, books, manuals, etc. Luba offers one-on-one, face-to-face sessions for up to 10 people per session. The lessons are strictly hands-on (no lesson plans, brochures, etc.). The student should be willing to devote approximately three hours, two to three times a week for up to two months – and that’s just to learn the basics.  Ceramic and porcelain repair is a craft and an art. We can teach you the craft, the rest is up to you and your muse.

There are many websites out in cyberspace “guaranteeing” to make a professional ceramic restorer out of you if you buy their tape or their book. We don’t make such promises. Like learning how to play the violin, or drive a car, or speak another language,  professional repair and restoration requires time, patience, and yes… talent.  Not everyone will play Carnegie Hall, but if you’re willing to put in the hours and the effort, magic will happen.

You will learn how to glue and fuse the broken pieces, sculpt the missing fragments, fill in the cracks, match and replicate the color and design/pattern, airbrush, and glaze to seal in the color and add gloss (if necessary).

Here’s a list of the types of restorations we specialize in and teach:

China Repair,

Porcelain Repair

Ceramic Restoration

Majolica Repair

Clay Restoration

Glass Repair

Doll Restoration

Earthenware Restoration

Bisque Repair

So if you’re interested in learning how to restore china that got damaged in shipping, or repair that porcelain or clay vase you inherited from your grandmother, or save and restore your ceramic bowl that’s worth a lot of money,  contact us any time at luba@luelstudio.com or by phone at 347-673-8831.We can also save you the time and money by doing the restoration for you.

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Luel Restoration Studio — Home 

China, originally referred to a ceramic dinnerware coming out of the country of China, was particularly fine and exceptionally white.

China is a ceramic product but of a very fine quality and it should more accurately be called porcelain. The Chinese perfected porcelain by using kaolin, a white clay, mixing it with china stone and firing it at high temperatures. That was in the 10th century and it took another 800 years before true porcelain was developed in Europe.

Early Europeans tried to duplicate Chinese porcelain and the results were soft paste porcelain made with clays and silicates. In the 1700s, a German pottery company successfully produced bone china, which is similar to true porcelain, by mixing calcified bones, clay, and feldspar. Bone china is extremely strong and easy to make, and it became very popular among the English speaking nations. However, true porcelain is preferred in much of Europe and Asia.

True porcelain is a hard, fine-grained, sonorous, nonporous, and usually translucent and white ceramic ware that consists essentially of kaolin, quartz, and a feldspathic rock and is fired at a high temperature —called also hard-paste porcelain.

In China, porcelain is defined as pottery that is resonant when struck; in the West it is a material that is translucent when held to the light. Neither definition is totally correct. Some heavily potted porcelains are opaque, while some thinly potted stonewares are sometimes translucent.

Porcelain Repair 

The trick in porcelain repair (china repair) is to be able to match the surface texture in such a way that it doesn’t differ from the original when held up to the light or gently struck. Airbrushing and glazing are two of the most important step in restoring china (or true porcelain), soft-paste porcelain and bone china. Glaze, a glass-like substance originally used to seal a porous pottery body is used solely for decoration on true(hard-paste) porcelain. A lot of inexperienced china restorers use too much glaze to cover their sculpting mistakes, thereby rendering the restored part more opaque than what it was originally.

Airbrushing the matched and replicated design in cold restoration requires painstaking effort. Painted decorations are executed over the fired glaze. Because painting under the glaze must be fired at the same high temperatures as the body, many colors and designs would get distorted or simply “fire away”. That’s why underglaze painting is limited to the extremely stable and reliable cobalt blue, which is found in most Chinese blue-and-white wares. These days most porcelain colors and designs are painted over the glaze and they are not as vivid and precise as the underglaze designs; therefore a restorer involved in porcelain repair and restoration is required to be very precise and patient.

For more on china restoration and porcelain repair, and to see the before and after photos of the two-inch Ming Dynasty wine cup Luba just restored for a New York City collector, click here…

Luel Restoration Studio — Home 

Luel Restoration Studio — Home

Meissen Porcelain is created by Germany’s premier manufacturer of fine porcelain tableware, giftware and hand-painted porcelain. They have been in continuous operation since 1710 in the town of Meissen, fifteen miles northwest of Dresden, Germany.

Today, they produce more than 175,000 items from about 200,000 different forms - some forms dating back to the early eighteenth century.

Meissen Porcelain is sold worldwide, and Meissen Porcelain Incorporated, located in New York, distributes throughout the North American market.

The focus of Meissen porcelain production has always been quality. Meissen is dedicated to handcrafting and to a balance of tradition and innovation.

At Luel Restoration Studio, we have extensive experience in Meissen porcelain repair.  We combine the skills of craftsmanship with advanced technology to bring damaged porcelain back to life.

We have the great artistic skill and experience needed to bring your heirloom or special porcelain piece back to it former beauty and value, making cracks and chips invisible to the eye.  Often times, we create missing pieces to the amazement of the porcelain owner.  Sculpting by hand and flawless color match painting are our specialties.

Contact Luel Restoration Studio for your porcelain restoration.

Luel Restoration Studio — Home 

In general, conservation is usually the work antiquities of museums and archaeological digs. Conservators do work on repairs, but they primarily focus on documentation, research, and repair methodology that does not obviously alter the item’s appearance.

Ceramic restoration can employ all of the above, but the emphasis is on making invisible repairs. Luel Restoration Studio offers the highest quality invisible and museum-style ceramic repair, restoration and conservation.

Restoration involves sculpting missing parts and retouching. However, an experienced and ethical ceramic restorer always uses the conservation method to strengthen objects, remove accumulations of old repairs that may injure the object, and works with only those materials that won’t damage the object’s substance, thus preserving and protecting it for future generations.

Luel Restoration Studio — Home 

Luel Restoration Studio — Home  

Your porcelain plate or antique breaks into several pieces … what to do?! Do not glue it yourself! Some of the most irreparable harm for a ceramic or porcelain repair is done by the owner.

You should be aware that some glues are impossible to remove. This make repair by Luel Restoration Studio difficult or impossible.

Different ceramic materials need different mending materials. Each repair situation calls for its own unique glue or mending material that can only be decided on by our experienced artist.

We use an incredible variety of materials, equipment and techniques that are dependant on the specific repair needed. Removing and repairing substandard gluing adds a significant amount of time, effort, and difficulty to the porcelain restoration process.

Luel Restoration Studio — Home 

Luel Restoration Studio — Home  

A subject close to our hearts is of course, porcelain, and “A Cup of Light,” is a great novel written around the topic of the intricacies of Chinese porcelain and the world of imitators and smugglers. It’s not a new book, published in 2003, but you may know the author, Nicole Mones, by her first book, “Lost in Translation,” which was made into the movie of the same name.

This is a fictional tale of a specialist in Chinese porcelain for a Sotheby’s-like art dealer who flies to Beijing to appraise a treasure trove of imperial porcelain pots secretly offered for sale by a Chinese businessman.

It’s an interesting read with so much Chinese porcelain art history being such a huge part of the story with the author’s detailed descriptions of the process and the history of Chinese porcelain.

If you are interested in the modern art world or porcelain art history, this is a good read.

Luel Restoration Studio — Home 

Luel Restoration Studio — Home  

Putting aside the very real sentimental value of a special family Hummel figurine, we will focus here on the monetary value of a Hummel piece.

Of course, if you’re not sure what you have, you will need to determine if your Hummel figurine is authentic. The best is to take your piece to an expert, but for a quick primer in what to look for, we offer suggestions …

There are definite marks for identification to determine if your figurine, bell or plate is a genuine Hummel. Many years ago, Sister Hummel requested that her stamp of approval appear on every piece. Under the board of her convent, approvals are made to this day with her mark incised on every piece.

There is also a mold number incised on the bottom of each Hummel figurine at the factory.

Although the Goebel trademark has evolved over the years, there is the official Goebel trademark stamp on the bottom of every figurine.

Hummel figurines are highly sought after by collectors. Several pieces are valued in the hundreds or thousands of dollars each. Figurines such as “For Father,” “Little Goat Herder,” and “Going to Grandmas” are examples of the value of Hummel collectibles.

As with all collectibles and ceramic art, condition and rarity are important factors in the value. If you have a genuine piece that may be showing some age or may need a repair for a crack or chip, the ceramic repair will be a definite investment in the current or future value of the piece.

Luel Restoration Studio — Home 

Franz Goebel began making his porcelain in Germany in 1876. After being establishing the company in the porcelain industry, Goebel’s son expanded the products they offered, expanded their markets to include America, and changed the company name to W. Goebel Porzellanfabrik.

Fast forward to the 1930s with the world in growing turmoil, and the founding father, Franz Goebel, became interested in offering the world art that reflected the gentle innocence of childhood. Mr. Goebel was introduced to the artwork Franciscan Sister Maria Innocentia Hummel, who drew depictions of charming, country children for popular art cards.

Goebel contacted Sister Hummel with clay models based on her drawings. Sister Hummel and her convent, Convent of Siessen, granted exclusive rights to Goebel to produce ceramic figurines based on her artwork. She was consulted and had to approve each porcelain piece. They agreed that earthenware, pioneered by Goebel a decade earlier, would be the best suited medium for the Hummel figurine product line.

Sister Hummel worked personally with Goebel’s Master artists to create the figurines which were first introduced in 1935. Hummel and Goebel continued their business relationship Sister Hummel died an early death at age 37 in 1946. Her artistry is continued to this day with new Hummel pieces being produced as collectible items.

Luel Restoration Studio www.luelstudio.com

Greetings!

So you’re a ceramic collector or want to be one, and interested in the care and conservation of ceramic items. Or maybe you’ve inherited items that have a great sentimental value and want to know how to protect them. Before we talk about ceramic restoration and conservation, first lets define the term “ceramic”.

Conservation Register (www.conservationregister.com) offers this explanation:

Ceramic is a broad term covering all types of fired clay, including terracotta, earthenware, stoneware and porcelain. Ceramics can be roughly divided into four categories as identified below:

• Low-fired pottery or earthenware (soft, porous): Neolithic, Greek, Roman and Chinese; tin-glazed Islamic and Hispano-Moresque, Italian maiolica, French faience, Dutch delft and English delftwares; lead-glazed Islamic; slipwares, Staffordshire.
• High-fired pottery or stonewares (non-porous): Chinese Yueh ware and celadons; (salt glazed) Rhenish and English stonewares; (lead glazed) Staffordshire stonewares and cream wares; Wedgwood basalt and jasper wares (unglazed).
• Soft paste ‘imitation’ porcelain: Medici, Capodimonte, Rouen, St. Cloud, Mennency, Vincennes, Bow, Chelsea, Derby, Worcester; bone china; unglazed Parian wares.
• Hard paste ‘true’ porcelain: Chinese and Japanese porcelains, Meissen, Vienna, Sevres, Plymouth, Bristol; biscuit wares (unglazed).

Below is an excellent article from an all-about-ceramics website –
www.antiquerestorers.com

“There is a great deal of misleading information about repairing ceramics at home, and the following should be avoided.

Repairs to Avoid:

• Don’t heat up cracked plates in the oven. This can extend the crack, split the object altogether or open up old repairs.
• There are many kinds of adhesives and their use in repair of valued ceramics requires training and an understanding of chemistry. Hydrogen peroxide and sterilising preparations are sometimes recommended for cleaning ceramics - don’t use them! Their ingredients can react causing damage, including staining. If you do use adhesive at home to repair a ceramic you’ll probably find it seeps out. Commercial glues can easily yellow and can be difficult to remove. Sandpaper and scalpels should not be used.
• Painting in a damaged area should also be avoided. There are over 100 colors of white! Color matching takes great skill and training.
• Soaking old ceramics can have hidden dangers. Old repairs could become loose and porous pieces will absorb water that could cause future damage.
• If a ceramic has been repaired (even by a conservator), don’t use it for food. It could be a health hazard.

If you discover damage on a piece that is special to you (for whatever reason), contact a qualified ceramics restorer to discuss treatment. A bad home repair will cost more to rectify than getting professional advice from the start.
Read more…

If you have any questions, contact Luel Restoration Studio by e-mail: luba at luelstudio.com or call us at 646-251-5593. We offer free estimates.

All the best,

Luel Restoration Studio www.luelstudio.com