Last month a dealer of Chinese Porcelain met Luba at a Majolica Convention in Miami, Florida. He had recently purchased several pieces of Tenmoku Porcelain / Tenmoku China, and wanted to Luel Restoraiton Studio to restore a crack in one of the bowls. It was a long hairline crack that ran across the entire bowl. Antique China Repair is one of Luba’s many fortes  and she could have restored the bowl beautifully and invisibly. The problem was that the bowl wasn’t Tenmoku and she told the dealer that.  We have worked with Temmoku pottery in the past at the studio and have studied its history and design.  Tenmoku is a glaze. A long firing process foreces the migrating iron to form surface crystals that look like oil spots. Tenmoku (also spelled Temmoku) is a Japanese name for this type of process and glaze. The Chinese name is Chien Yao. In English it’s referred to as Heaven’s Eye.  The dealer’s bowl had painted stains glazed over. It was a beautiful piece but it wasn’t Tenmoku.  Ultimately, the dealer decided against restoring the bowl, but he was grateful to Luba for pointing his mistake out to him. He contacted Luel Restoration studio a couple of weeks later and shipped two Staffordshire items for restoration.  Below is a sample image of a Tenmoku Pottery.