I broke Grandma's Lladro and Hummel collectible
Charles Foster has been restoring porcelain and china
collectibles and objects d'art for 34 years. He was approached
by a client who excavates dinosaur remains. The client needed
missing pieces restored to several Tyrannosaurus Rex teeth. He
told Foster that these restored teeth would sell for several
thousand dollars each and that he could not find anyone with the
expertise to perform the dinosaur dentistry. Foster agreed to
take on the job and developed a state of the art process using
an ultra-violet curable composite similar to what dentists use
on human teeth. Now with 40 T-rex teeth projects completed,
along with thousands of porcelain, china and glass restorations
Foster has finished for his happy clients, he is faced with a
new challenge. Where does someone go to learn how to
professionally restore a 2000-year-old, paper-thin Roman glass
vase or grandma's broken china teapot spout?
Foster said that he is concerned about the shortage of
restoration artists in the U.S. He is meeting the shortage
challenge by conducting a weeklong porcelain and china
restoration course scheduled to begin December 12th at his
Austin, Texas, studio where he will share his private
restoration techniques with a handful of fortunate students from
around the U.S. The course is tailored towards helping
individuals who have no background in restoration to achieve the
intermediate level of skill needed to begin a restoration
business. During the 34 years he has been restoring dozens of
varied compositions in collectibles, he has developed vastly
more efficient methods for bonding and restoration, cutting work
time by half in most cases. Students who are taught by this
master will have an opportunity to become part of a new
restorer's referral network, which will be available to clients
on his web site. Foster said "I have a one year backlog of
projects, and 50% of the work I perform is for people who only
want their pieces simply glued back together. The other 50% are
valuable pieces that need invisible restoration and 20% of my
overall projects are items sent to me from clients living in
large metropolitan areas from around the U.S.". The fact that
new clients go to the trouble of sending their items from out of
state for repair is one of the key indicators that there is a
shortage of restoration artists.
Course reservations can be made beginning October 18, 2005. If
you would like to participate in the course or need more
information about the course or services please visit
http://www.brokentreasure.com or call 512-848-8374.