Pottery made to order | repair and restoration studio in Southern Delaware
filling missing piece or a hole with pottery or sculpture repair

Keeping Cemented Pieces in Place While Curing


Lakeside Pottery studio Intragram
#lakesidepottery



Ceramic & Sculpture Repair Lessons
(click pictures)

Fixing broken plate lesson - basic lesson
Cementing only lesson

Fixing chipped Italian platter lesson step-by-step lesson
Chipped pottery repair lesson

Complete ceramic repair lesson | cementing, filling, painting and glazing
Complete ceramic repair lesson

Repair marble /stone statue requiring metal insertion
Marble / stone sculpture repair

How to Sculpt and Add Missing Pottery Segment
How to Sculpt and Add Missing Pottery Segment

Fixing broken vase - more complex repair
Restore vase lesson

How to Replace Stoneware Crock's rim using the potter's wheelHow to replace Stoneware crock's rim

kintsugi - mending broken pottery with golden jointery
Kintsugi - mending with gold

How to repair crack in ceramic
How to fix ceramic crack

Restoring multi breaks and missing piece antique bowl
Restore bowl lesson w/ missing pieces

Restoring ancient pottery steps
Restoring ancient pottery steps

Lladro figurine - Restoring ceramic sculpture with missing pieces using fired clay
Sculpting missing pieces - Lladro

How to paint broken china, ceramic or pottery?
Painting pottery after repair

Madonna ceramic sculpture repair
Madonna ceramic sculpture repair

Restoring ceramic sculpture with missing pieces using fired clay
Making missing part w/ fired clay

Repairing broken stone sculptures and statues
Repairing broken stone sculpture

Restoring ceramic sculpture with missing pieces using fired clay
Bronze sculpture repair

Restoring large stone sculpture / statue
Restoring stone sculpture / statue

Plaster figure / statue reapir
Plaster figure / statue repair

Repairing broken plaster of paris tall lamp
Plaster lamp repair w/ missing parts

Heavily damaged ceramic figurine repair
Heavily damaged ceramic figurine repair

How to remove old epoxy from old pottery or china
Removing stains

How to remove old epoxy from old pottery or china
Removing old glue

There are several types of epoxy cements that can take anywhere from 5 minutes to several hours to cure partially or fully.

Holding the cemented pieces by hand waiting the duration of the cure time is not practical or accurate. This lesson illustrates a 5-minute workable time epoxy behavior (see video below) and further down, we illustrate the different methods that can be used for keeping cemented pieces in place until the epoxy cures enough.

5-Minutes Epoxy Behavior - PC Clear

The video below is taken at a 75 degree F room temperature. The whole process will be slower at lower room temperatures way we expedite the process is by placing the epoxy cartridge in a 140 degree F wax warmer and than place the cemented object in a heated box that is also set to 140 degree F reducing cure time dramatically.





140 degree oven for reducing cure time


140 degree wax warmer for reducing cure time

Keeping Cemented Pieces in Place Until Epoxy
Cures at
Room Temperature of 75 Degree F



Gravity is your best friend: In most cases, we use container with PVC pellets to hold broken segments in place to positioning the pieces using gravity where no temporary bonding is require
Resin / PVC pellets seem to work the best for us. One can use rice or sand.
Resin / PVC pellets seem to work the best for us. One can use rice or sand.

For the pellets, search web for "Resin pellets". The sharp edges type (as shown above) work better than the totally round pellets
For the pellets, search web for "Resin pellets". The sharp edges type (as shown above) work better than the totally round pellets

Dry run proper placement of the two parts needing cementing
Dry run proper placement of the two parts needing cementing

When it stands on it own, place the epoxy on
When it stands on it own, place the epoxy on


Temporary bonding methods: At times, using gravity alone to secure broken segments in place may not work. Few temporary bonding techniques are shown below (tape, clay, glue-gun)
If you are unsure it will stay, you always add tape
If you are unsure it will stay, you always add tape

Often we ue clay as shown here or below
Often we use clay as shown here or below

There are cases that it is difficult or impossible to place balanced using gravity.
There are cases that it is difficult or impossible to place balanced using gravity.

Let the epoxy cure before cleaning excess cured glue
In such case, we use clay to keep the parts matched until the epoxy cures
If clay is not available, tape can be used
If clay is not available, tape can be used
Glue gun is also an option although it is a bit harder to remove once teh epoxy cures
Glue gun is also an option although it is a bit harder to remove once the epoxy cures

Filling Large Gap or Missing Piece on Ceramic, Pottery or Sculpture

Small pieces do not hold well on the resin pellets. This example shows how we use clay to position the segments on clay
Small pieces do not hold well on the resin pellets. This example shows how we use clay to position the segments on clay

Segment A is oriented anchored on the clay until segment B can stand on it's own in the correct location
Segment A is oriented anchored on the clay until segment B can stand on it's own in the correct location


Some more examples of keeping pieces in place
cementing pottery
Example A
cementing pottery
Example B

cementing pottery
Example C

In this example, we use both, clamps and pellets
In this example, we use both, clamps and pellets

double jointed vice to place the plate in the proper orientation

In this example, we are using double jointed vice to place the plate in the proper orientation - see vice on left

Clamp swivel vise
Clamp swivel vise
With heavy and large items, we use, ropes and winches
With heavy and large items, we use, ropes and winches

Another example using clampingAnother example using clamping


COPYRIGHT Lakeside Pottery LLC ; COPYRIGHT details and linking policy; Protected by Copyscape including reporting to search engines