Dolls are not just for children! Porcelain doll collecting is one of the most popular hobbies in the world. It’s true that dolls transport us to our youth, to the age of innocence, to that place that time or age cannot touch. Most doll collectors, however, appreciate  the craftsmanship and the artistry of a doll.

Doll collecting can be very exciting, but addictive. There are many choices and the prices can run into thousands of dollars. There are dolls made by individual artists, limited edition dolls, china and ceramic dolls, and many, many other type of dolls.  There are also many doll clinics and doll repair shops that specialize in invisible and museum quality doll repair.  Do not discard or throw away a doll that may look like a child’s toy or a doll that has been passed on to you by your parent or grandparent.  It may be worth quite a bit of money.  If the doll is damaged,  do not attempt to restore it yourself. Unless you know what you’re doing you will damage it even more , creating more work for a professional restorer. Many porcelain repair specialists refuse to take on a doll repair job because they are unable to match the skill with which the doll had been originally created.

Luba Sokolina is doll collector and doll repair expert who has been specializing in doll restoration for over twenty five years. If your want your doll restored with artistry and care, flawlessly and invisibly, contact Luel Restoration Studio.

China Restoration in History

The art and craft of Chinese porcelain has played a crucial role in bringing the artistry of porcelain to different parts of the world, as well as to different and often seemingly unrelated disciplines  (architecture, sculpture, silverwork, etc.) It set forth a novel and creative multi-cultural synthesis that has helped the way the world looks at a work of art.

According to Luba Sokolina, a porcelain repair expert at Luel Restoration Studio and a student of Asian culture and art, “Around the same time Europe was going through a “porcelain craze”, Islamic cultures of Egypt and Turkey were too greatly influenced by the art of Chinese porcelain makers. “ Doing research on the impact of Chinese porcelain on Islamic art and craft, Luba noticed that It is precisely in the treatment of surface that China exerted her most powerful impact on Islamic concepts of ceramic decoration. Prior to the fifteenth century, the Chinese working in blue and white had been content to accept the two dimensionality of Islamic design, with its decorations capable of infinite extension into space and so filling it.

But once the mathematical division of space which was a concommitant of this approach had been mastered, the Chinese adapted the fundamental need for division of surface to their own ends, and reverted to their own deeply-ingrained habit of using space in such a manner as to imply a third dimension. They achieved this by using decorative elements which could stand independently of each other and yet were spatially related on the surface. The impact was not confined to Iran, but is seen in Egypt, in the work of Gaibi and his contemporaries, in Syria, and in the Iznik wares of Turkey. Ultimately the same impact, in a slightly different context was made on Europe.

The actual elements constituting the Chinese porcelain style have now become so deeply imbedded in the traditions of both the Near East and Europe that it is not easy to recognize them, but once seen and their origins understood, they become as obvious as those of the Near East in Chinese traditions.

Luba Sokolina is the head restorer of Luel Restoration Studio, specializing in ceramic and porcelain repair. Visit Luel Restoration Studio at http://www.luelstudio.com

Porcelain figurines used to be the “the things to own and show off” in 18^th and 19^th Century Europe.  Regrettably, in the past fifty or sixty years, porcelain collectors’ tastes have simplified and cheap knickknacks have replaced the regal beauty of Meissen porcelain.  According to many porcelain collectors and restoration experts, such as Luba Sokolina of Luel Restoration Studio, Meissen porcelain is the Dom Perignon of porcelain and the only true hard-paste porcelain that was developed outside of China.

Some believe that in today’s difficult financial times, fewer collectors would want to invest in expensive Meissen pieces. Nothing could be further from the truth, says Laurence Mitchell on Buy Meissen Website http://www.buymeissen.com

According to Mitchell, “There is a myth that when the financial markets are going through difficulties there will be less money around to purchase quality Meissen. This could not be further from the truth. When collectors are buying the rarest and the best in quality whenever those items find their way onto the market the prices achieved at auction are amongst the highest seen often giving the collector or investor a great return on their investment than keeping their money in a savings account or other financial investment.”

More about Meissen and Meissen Porcelain Restoration…

LUEL RESTORATION STUDIO — PORCELAIN AND CERAMIC RESTORATION EXPERTS

In Issue # 38 of Beijing Reivew (Sept. 17^th, 2008) there was an interesting article by  ZAN JIFANG  titled “In Pursuit of Porcelain”.  

We want to look at it from the point of view of Chinese porcelain repair professionals who have been involved in restoration and conservation of ceramic  and porcelain for the last  twenty-five years.

According to Mr. Jifang, “Traditional porcelain crafting has very specific areas of design. This allows each craftsman to become highly skilled in his area of expertise. From shaping and firing to painting, every part of the artwork requires a different pair of hands….Thus, a contemporary porcelain work has more continuity of design, as only one creator is involved throughout the process. Today’s collectors find this aspect more appealing than antique ones.”    

What makes Chinese porcelain valuable? Aside from the artistic value of the work, it’s the crafting process. “It basically takes 18 steps to finish a porcelain work. The process becomes more complicated if choosing the clay is included, “says Zan Jifang. “The work should also be associated with the time and reflect the time, which is also called the historic value of an artwork. Only a work that has both art value and historic value is worth investing in.”

A porcelain restorer is a craftsman and artist rolled into one. She has to know the history reflected in the work and the process involved in creating it. Mechanically matching and replicating the design won’t do it. Restoration and conservation process absolutely involves a historical knowledge and the skills that go into creating and designing a porcelain item. The only difference between creating a porcelain bowl/figurine/sculpture from scratch and restoring it is the flight of artistic imagination, which limits the restorer to work on what’s been given to her.

 Luba Sokolina, the restorer at Luel Restoration Studio, is a sculptor and designer, who’s familiar with Asian calligraphy and painting. If you have a valuable porcelain item that you want restored, contact us and we’ll be glad to work with you. We specialize in invisible and museum quality restoration and conservation. 

 Subject: Porcelain Restoration

Visit Luel Restoration Studio – The Ceramic And Pottery Restoration Experts

We received an e-mail from a client for whom we restored an antique pottery bowl. He lives in Taos, New Mexico and has decided to become a ceramic and porcelain restoration expert himself. Pottery repair is what he’s interested in and he read as much on the subject as he could get his hands on, including old journals. In his e-mail he outlined his own theory from everything he’s read, and asked us to post it on our blog for those of you who might be interested in investigating the art of pottery and porcelain restoration. Here’s his e-mail:

                                 On Pottery Restoration

 The restoration process described here is a pottery restoration technique that can be used in small studio or museum limited in personnel and equipment. It is essential in this process that enough of the vessel be represented to show at least one-third of the curve of rim and body. When related sherds have been mended to form a single piece, the entire surface is covered with liquid soap, or a similar agent, to prevent the plaster of Paris, used as explained later, from adhering to the surface or in the lines of mending. When carefully covered by this film, the piece is placed to stand upright on its rim. Thus the plane of the table on which it rests becomes the plain of the rim, and the angle with thisplane assumed by the walls of the vessel accurately determined.

 Then plaster for pottery repair, just thin enough to prevent air bubbles, is poured on the surface. The mold should be so made as to be easily removed after hardening. With this precaution observed, the mold may be built up to a thickness sufficient to insure against breakage in handling. It may be necessary to make the mold in two parts, for restoration of pottery depends on the amount of curve characterizing the pottery walls. When the mold has become thoroughly dried, it should be removed with little effort.

Then plaster is poured into the mold to produce a cast of the partial pot. Caution should be observed to make the cast as nearly the thickness of the pottery as possible, and to facilitate the easy removal of the mold. While the cast is drying, the operator may continue his work by finding the circumference of the mouth of the original pot. The outside of the rim is traced on a piece of paper upon which the pottery section is resting, rim down. A flat pencil is used to permit the line to follow the rim more closely. With this done, the pottery is removed from the arc thus projected on the paper. On the arc draw two chords, and upon these chords erect perpendicular bisectors. The radius of the original vessel is the distance from the point of intersection of the bisectors to the arc. The pottery piece is now fixed in erect position, resting on its rim, by driving wire brads to form inner and outer supporting rows. The cast reproduction of the pottery piece is placed on its rim, the latter resting on the line marking the completed circumference, opposite the true sherd.

The next step of the repair is to model in the missing parts of the rim. This can be done in some cases by the application of thick plaster only. It may be necessary to model in clay the remaining spaces between the edges of the two pieces, and then build on either side a plaster mold which will overlap the edges of the pottery and the cast. The modeling clay will reconstruct the shape of the missing pottery, as indicated by the exist- ing parts. Remove the clay after the plaster has hardened. Arrange the mold in a position so that the two pieces will be in their correct relative positions in the new mold, and thus add a cast that will make one solid piece of the original two. In many cases the missing parts of the vessel must be modeled in clay, and molds made, as in previously described instances. If the spaces to be filled are small, this can be effected from the outside by backing the opening with any kind of modeling material, filling in plaster, and finishing before the plaster is too hard.

As always, if your item is valuable, don’t attempt to restore it yourself. Contact Pottery Repair and Restoration experts, such as Luba Sokolina at Luel Restoration Studio. Luba and staff will restore your item quickly and invisibly. Visit the website for Contact Information.

The Fukagawa “Blue Flow” on the bright white porcelain surface is a challenge to recreate, but if it’s done right by an expert restorer, the restoraiton is invisible to the naked eye. The trick is to match the color first, the replicated the fine blue before airbrushing the restored part and applying a thin coat of glaze.

If you’re a collector of Fukawaga Porcelain or Chinese Porcelain, and are wondering whether your items can be brought back to their original state after they have been damaged, wonder no further.

Luba Sokolina, the head restorer at Luel Restoration Studio has the experience and the talent to bring back your damaged porcelain and ceramic items back to life.

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