Tuesday, April 29, 2008

BUTTERFINGERS

I really could have used a hover charm yesterday but who can think of wingardium leviosa when a precious 30 year old Italian porcelain vase of roses is heading towards the concrete driveway.

It was my sister's fault, she of the 'throw everything out' school of housekeeping who didn't have a box to put it in.

I put it in a bag and surrounded the roses with the balls of wool I had but that didn't stop it from slipping straight through my fingers. Delicate roses make a kind of fragile clinking sound even from inside a cocoon of wool.

The damage is restricted to the back of the ornament where the original break was and which I was supposed to repair. The damn thing is top heavy and inclined to fall over if it's breathed on.
So it's now sitting on a tray, on a table, in a room with the door shut until I start the glueing.

Before that I had to clean dirt, dust and cigarette smoke from each petal and leaf. I couldn't use soap and water, too soaking or meths, too fast drying so I used a kitchen cleaner on one leaf at a time. Take a tip ladies and never throw away make-up brushes. The brush to put on the cleaner and cotton buds to take it off.

I went as pale as the first petal until I realized that that was its original colour and it was supposed to shine in the light. Now to clean the broken (50 at least) pieces, re-assemble them on the tray first then glue them to the main flowers. I should have it finished in about three weeks if the nerves hold out that long.

10 comments:

Lord Sedgwick said...

After that, your next task is a 20,000 pieces jigsaw puzzle of an english country garden as dusk.

Lord Sedgwick said...

"at" dusk, that would be.

JahTeh said...

What about a 10 piece jigsaw of Lord Hughes, contoured, to be done with a blindfold.

Lord Sedgwick said...

We don't want your buttery digits anywhere near Adonis Hughes' interlocking bits.

JahTeh said...

Good Goddess, M'Lord, I'd be wearing rubber gloves and using extremely long BBQ tongs.

Jayne said...

Crikey, I don't envy you at all, Jahteh!
Aim for glueing one piece per day, otherwise frustration levels build and the (even more broken porcelain) result isn't pretty...well,with me any way lol.

River said...

Meh, buy a new one. It won't look the same, but does anyone really care? (Hubby's response evrytime he broke a favourite mug and I complained.)

JahTeh said...

Jayne, the secret is to piece the bits before glueing so that they fit. I should be able to touch up any white bits with a china paint.

River, I had a husband like that so I hid my favourite bone china mugs in a very dark place. Like all men he never looked anywhere but the obvious and that's where I put the cheap rubbish for him.

River said...

I learnt pretty quickly NOT to tell him which dishes and mugs I loved and soon after the best mug in the world went to the great dustbin in the sky I packed away most of my treasures. Told him the cupboard was overcrowded.Funnily enough his favourite mug is not even chipped let alone broken. I'm tempted to throw it onto the concrete path occasionally but I'm afraid most of my own treasures would follow it. He's a little weird, possessions and sentiment mean nothing to him.
How's the repair job going? Glued your fingers together yet?

JahTeh said...

Have not even begun the glueing yet, still on the cleaning.
You know those Ronald MacDonald mugs are nearly indestructible so he'll never chip it.