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What to do with broken ceramics?
While in Florencelast month, I bought a beautiful large handpainted bowl. Unfortunately, while the shop wrapped it up - I still managed to break it in my carry-on baggage.
The breaks are too big to glue and the breakage was my fault. Does anyone have any creative suggestions to do with the shards (almost all very large)? They are beautifully painted and I haven't been able to bring myself to throw it all away. |
I am far from being creative, but my friend and her daughter did this last year as holiday gifts.
They went to Home Depot and bought single tiles. Broken them into small pieces and glued the pieces around a terra cotta flower pot. I'm sure there's a name for what they did, and I'm sure that the creative folks will point it out!! It might be a great way to hold on to some of the beauty of the bowl! Good luck! |
If you are in or near a large city, you should be able to find someone who is qualified to glue the pieces together. Such people are not easy to find, but they do exist...
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Mosaics!
Sorry to hear about your lost bowl though. |
You could also break it into more pieces and glue them onto a small table in a mosaic style.
Sorry to hear about that! I too bought some ceramics home. All but one piece made it, and luckily it was just a cheap "atteni gatti" sign with a picture of a black cat, but I still loved it and was upset that it broke. Tracy |
Oops, forgot. I had a friend who inherited a set of hand painted Italian dishes that weren't her style. She didn't want to part with them for sentimental reasons so she broke 'em to bits and made a mosaic backsplash in her kitchen.
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You can also use the shards to frame a piece of mirror. A friend of mine did this with her broken ceramics and the result is stunning!
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Mosiac is definitely a good use for them. As ealier posters have said - mosiac coffee table, mosiac picture frame, mosiac terracota pots --- if you go to the library there are lots of books that will show you the process and give you ideas. I am a big gardener and I have made lots of mosaic pieces that always get ooohs and aaaahs when I give them as gifts. Since your pieces are nice and big, I would even look into cutting them into shapes that suit your exact purpose, using an inexpensive tile cutter and tile snipper, both of which you can get at a craft shop or Home Depot.
Also, I notice alot of those "paint your own pottery" places are branching out into mosiacs and often have a one or 2 day class available to show you the process. |
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Or take the pieces and simply place them in a solid color ceramic or glass bowl as a decorative piece. Nice change from fruit, etc.
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Send them to me, mosaic is my full time job.I'll make you something and send it back. no charge for a fodorite with a broken souvinier from travels. Email me at [email protected].
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If you charged it to an American Express card it is insured, and can re-order the item.
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Oh, texstout! I'm sorry to hear about your bowl. But the good thing about mosaic-making is that no china or ceramics are ever truly lost. And colorful Italian ceramics are often especially well-suited for mosaics.
The term for using broken fragments in mosaics is "pique assiette" (originally used derisively, it's sometimes spelled "picassiette"), and the results of using this technique can be lovely and very pleasing. For the best results, you may want to see lots of illustrations, and even to practice in advance. To start, you could look in a library or large bookstore, especially for books written by or featuring the work of Emma Biggs and Tessa Hunkin, or Elaine M. Goodwin. Leslie Dierks and Peggy Vance have also written books with projects that look appealing. After getting ideas for a project, you might do well to buy some flea-market or dollar-store ceramics to practice with. Tile nippers may let you shape pieces the way you like best. This will all take some effort, but the results could be well worth it, and you might wind up with an even more striking memento! Good luck! |
What a beautiful and generous offer Laartista!!
I wish I had know about taking broken china (when a couple of kitchen shelves collapsed and broke many items several years ago) and making mosaics. After I threw all the pieces of china away I saw a program on Home & Gardens regarding this very subject, sigh. |
The art form is called pisassiate. There's a house in Chartres that you can pay to see. Amazing
http://www.ehow.com/how_18757_turn-broken-ceramics.html |
www.mosart.shutterfly.com
I'm not your usual mosaic hacker. You can send me a pix from Florence and i will do a copy and work the broken pieces in. |
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I have the pieces of a broken platter from Deruta that was supposed to go to my Mom. I swore I'd make something with it and never did. Six years later....
I'll email you too laartista! |
E-mail me & Send them I'm feeling passover generousity today. LOL
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My MasterCard also insures most of my purchases against theft or damage for 90 days from the date of purchase.
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