Repairing stoneware tesserae

[luisgoldfarb]

Hi!
I am currently working in a mosaic restoration project for the Teatro Colón historical building in Buenos Aires.
Appart from the production of some small stoneware bars from which to hand cut the replacemet teserae, I am trying to investigate and produce e "repair paste" or similar, in order to restore the small holes and broken edges in tesserae that need not to be fully replaced.
i thought that if I high fire the clay dust, I could then mix this fired material with an epoxy adhesive or something. This paste should be strong ebough to resist abrasion and years of use, and should stick strongly to the original porcelain-stoneware tesserae.
I would be grateful to hear some recommendations concerning this technique.
Regards!
Luis

 

[Spud]

In the marble trade polyester resins are extensively used to repair stones these do not work well out side however and alternatives are used in this case if the job is inside the polyester resins can be colored using coloured additives, brand names are Sebalrit and General both manufactured in Italy , Litokol make a range of coloured epoxy grouts and there are many colours to chose from ,this is also manufactured in Italy,hope this helps

 

[luisgoldfarb]

Thank you very much.
I will carry out some experiments to test mixing the porcelain powder with polyester resins and also epoxi.
Will inform on the results!

 

[CBTC]

Luis, that sounds an interesting job. Certainly your thinking is along the right lines. I agree there is no need to take out slightly damaged tesserae -
a repair paste, mixed from the dustof the tile and a resin is a commonly used technique in stone work.
How well it would work on a gold leaf tesserae I dont know. There is a mosaic community website for USA mosaic makers
http://www.americanmosaics.org/
and they may be of much greater help, and interest to you regarding your work.
Best of luck - post some pictures when done for us if you care to. It would be something different to see for sure.

 

[luisgoldfarb]

Thank you very much!
I did post some photos in the albums section. There is some problem with one of the albums and I could only upload two pictures.
The other one is about the color matching process, and this was very important for the restoration authorities of Teatro Colón.
Regards!