Any way to patch cracks / chips in pottery butter dish?

My wife has a butter dish that she has had longer than she's had me. It's some kind of pottery with a glaze finish. Made in Italy.

Recently, a small piece of the finish chipped off. It's in the middle of the base where the butter sits. The finish is shiny white. The material underneath, now exposed, is a dull grey.

The chip is about the size of a pea and triangular in shape. I do not have the chip. (Probably had it on a piece of toast.)

If I look closely, I can see a series of hairline cracks in several across the base.

Is there any way to patch that chip? It doesn't have to be perfect, because it's covered most of the time, but it has to be pretty good. I was also hoping to stop further chipping.

I asked over on the home repair ng. The suggestions there were appliance touch-up paint, acrylic paint, and tinted epoxy.

I bought the touch-ip paint and the acrylic paint. The acrylic paint was the wrong shade of white. The touch-up paint was close to the right color so I tried that first. I filled in the chip divot (only took 2-3 coats as it was very shallow) and touched up the hairline cracks.

When it dried, I polished it with polishing compound used for car paint. The polishing removed all of the paint from the cracks. It looked like it didn't stick to the glaze at all. The paint in the chip is there, but I was not able to get a nice smooth finish. It's not bad, but not great.

Is there any way to repair this dish? It's not valuable, but she likes it.

If there is no way to patch the chip and cracks, can I repaint the bottom? The dish has a lip running around the base. I could paint just that portion if I could match the color fairly well. I supposed I'd have to roughen the glaze to get it to stick, so I don't want to even start on that unless it's going to work.

Any ideas appreciated.

Reply to
Square Peg
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MHO is this ship is not going to fly... If you knew what kind of firing it was, you could use some paper clay to fill in, glaze and refire. If she REALLY, REALLY liked it, you could find your local potters group (Universities/colleges usually have one) and ask if anyone there would be interested in making a piece like it. I am making a wild guess that it is majolica (white with colorful designs painted on it). Fairly easy to find.

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this point I would not use it for food and any repairs you do, such as what you have done, would ruin its value if it were an antique. Shit happens, things break. Craftsmen all over the country are doing wonderful work. Find a piece that the two of you have a shared memory of. Prices range widely - your local craftsmen are going to be your best bet.

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my opinion of course. Sorry I have nothing better to offer. Donna

Reply to
dkat

The small cracks are called crazing and indicate a slight mismatch of glaze to clay. This is pretty normal on many pieces of china after time and many dish washings. As the cracks get more numerous, they can possibly harbor germs so you may take dkat's advice and just put it up as an 'antique' and get a new one. The chip is just bad luck, I guess, or several of these crazing cracks got together and decided to say adios to the dish.

Sorry

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> At this point I would not use it for food and any repairs you do, such as > what you have done, would ruin its value if it were an antique.>

Reply to
631grant

I just read about this on CLAYART and this was the most detailed post

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// If the piece is lucky enough to have sustained clean breaks where nothing has been lost, then you are talking about "gluing it back together". Low-fired clay is more absorbent than high-fired clay, so perhaps white glue or other "wood glues" like "Elmer's glue" will work. This is the simple "glue it back together". Glue it, squeeze it together tightly, hold it together with rubber bands or tape and wipe off the excess while the glue is still wet. Do not use Contact cement or other rubber based glues. You cannot sand them.

Recently I accepted a repair job of a German plate. I found that major parts were missing or had been pulverized into tiny pieces that could not be used. This is "restoration"- the job of epoxy putty. Putty is NOT a liquid glue as such, but rather a sticky clay- like material used to build up an area or completely make a new part. It dries rock hard. The EV product

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althoughpricey (around $25.00) is excellent for this purpose. It can besanded, worked wet and tinted to roughly match the surrounding color.Then color retouching has to begin.There is also an excellent white, 2 part epoxy made by Duron. You canget it at most hardware stores. It is a more "runny" type ofadhesive. It dries hard over night, will fill in fine cracks and canbe wet sanded nicely.But here's a tip: Squeeze out the 2 parts of the epoxy on a paperplate, take a toothpick and make another grouping of each partvisually on the paper plate. The dispenser is not reliable. Then usethe tooth pick to blend them together. Don't just stir the mixture acouple of times. Spend a minute and do a thorough mix. If you don't,the dried epoxy surface will have a tacky finish to it. Apply theepoxy with a toothpick sparingly to only one of the surfaces. Tapethe piece firmly in place. Good Luck.

Reply to
dkat

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