Picking Up The Pieces: Lets See Your Best Repurposes and Repairs!

[NJKLAGT]

Picking Up The Pieces: Let's See Your Best Repurposes and Repairs!

Hey Everyone,

We all find pieces of broken glass and china and pottery while out digging, but sometimes we find broken things worth hanging onto, or enough pieces of the whole to construct something worth keeping.

Bass recently posted a thread about repurposing a broken Coke bottle and that got me wondering about what else everyone's done with making the best of their unfortunate finds. I'm also curious to see your best repairs, your best gluing and taping and sticking-together to give new life to those broken beauties.

I'll start with this late 19th century transferware pitcher that I recovered from the only privy that I've so far had the opportunity to dig, October 2015. I found all but one piece - this irks me a bit, but what can ya do? I used a cyanoacrylate to stick it all together, and I just filled the remaining gap with drywall compound to give it a more finished look. 'Thought about mixing some paint to try and colour match it too, but that can always wait. For now it's nice to look at and there is some kind of life brought back into it.

 

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[Davecourt]

That's nice!

 

[Bass]

Yes, good job. Like you, I hate to throw old things away. I have a very tall sauce and 2 ginger beers that I put back together because all the pcs were there and I knew I could still display them. The first pit I ever dug had a broken pint size clasped hands flask, a Wolfe's embossed Liberty Bell Schnapps and a 6 log Drake's Bitter's. I think all the pcs were there and I could have likely pieced 1 or all 3 back together but at the time the thought didn't really cross my mind. Of course, there would be no value to them but I probably won't ever see glass like that again unless I bought them.

 

[RelicDude]

Very cool. Do you think that pitcher is from an old wash basin?

 

[NJKLAGT]

Thanks guys! It was in about 20 pieces, and was taken apart at one point because I had found more of those pieces, so for gluing it twice it looks at least decent.

Yeah, holy smokes Bass, too bad about the clasped hands and Drake's. If only they were whole! Let's see a pic of the sauce or those gingers!

RelicDude, I'm guessing that this probably did have a matching basin. It could have been used for washing up either in the house or the privy. Maybe little Tommy broke it so mom just through it down the hole.

 

[Bass]

Picking Up The Pieces: Let's See Your Best Repurposes and Repairs!

Here are the 2 beers and the sauce. 1st picture you can't see any damage. In the second picture look closely at the beers and you can see 1 thin vertical crack on each one and the sauce you can see easily. I can fill all three with water and they won't leak

 

[NJKLAGT]

Nice, Bass!

It's always convenient when there are only one or two pieces. In the first pic you'd never think they were damaged, great for display, that sauce would make a nice vase for sure. I haven't tried to repair any glass yet, it seems like it would be a lot trickier.

Here are two bowls and dinner plates I pieced together. I dug the bowls one day and the plates the next day. New Wharf Pottery, "Waldorf" pattern, 1891-1894, England. They are pretty beat up, but beautiful nonetheless!

 

[Bass]

I like them and I think it's great you saved them. A lot of people would call that junk but not me.

 

[bottlehunterofcoscob]

Though cryers are something all too common for me, here are some I saved. The ones with the broken tops might become drink glasses (depending on if they have cracks or not and if I can find whole ones, which I'm determined to do!) and the other two were too cool not to glue back.

 

[villagenut]

I am glad I am not the only one who cares for the lowly broken shards. There is one large trash pit that I frequent that has given many intact pieces, but there is always a busted plate,bottle or cup with just one shard missing....go figure. I bag and tag all shards because eventually I seem to find a matching piece sometimes yards away from the initial collection point. Here are but a few and some are still waiting for their "long lost sister" shards to be found.These are just a few works in progress...nothin fancy,valuable or rare...but I will continue to be the mender of common vessels, besides it's all fun anyways.

 

[coloradocav1]

A friend of mine who lives in New York make awesome art and jewelry with broken shards, relics, doll heads etc. Check it out on the net. Scott Jordan New York artifacts, he also has a cool book called "past objects". amazing stuff. He digs for a living, wish I could!

 

[NJKLAGT]

Great stuff everybody!

bottlehunterofcoscob, that'd make a darn nice set of 4 with the different embossed plates on there. And nice job on the flask and blob, you make gluing glass look less tricky than I thought.

villagenut, you've got a few nice projects going on there. Yeah, I got lucky because the pitcher was in a privy and the bowls and plates were all in the same cubic metre or so of soil. Finding those individual pieces in a large pit, that must be like a needle in a haystack, as they say.

coloradocav1, I just checked out Scott Jordan's work. Wow, what a creative and resourceful way to make use of all those bits and pieces. And what a way to live!

 

[coloradocav1]

Scott Jordan is an absolute genious when it come to repairing broken pottery, he can match paint like none i've ever seen. Cool guy

 

[Tejaas]

Holy crap this thread is awesome!
Nice work ya'll!

~Tejaas~

 

[RelicDude]

Here's my contribution . Dr a.s Hopkins union stomach bitters. Which is a local bottle from Hartford. I found most of the pieces except for the top. But it displays well I love the citron color. Second is a mostly complete Albany slip batter jug. I just wish I knew how to repair it.

 

[RelicDude]

Though cryers are something all too common for me, here are some I saved. The ones with the broken tops might become drink glasses (depending on if they have cracks or not and if I can find whole ones, which I'm determined to do!) and the other two were too cool not to glue back.View attachment 1265663View attachment 1265664

Oh man I love the slug plate flask that's a nice CT local.

 

[bottlehunterofcoscob]

Oh man I love the slug plate flask that's a nice CT local.

Found it in a really urban disgusting river and was already cracked, just holding on in the mud. Came apart when I cleaned it and glued it back. Looked whole when I pulled it out and I was so pissed when I saw the damage.

 

[NJKLAGT]

Wow RelicDude, beautiful colour on that Hopkins, I totally agree. I wonder if for that batter jug you could make a shallow circular mould, probably even just with a flexible cardboard ring (maybe from a cereal box) wrapped around the bottom edge, and tape around that to make sure nothing bleeds out, and just tape it down on another piece of cardboard as a working surface and to avoid mess, and just slowly pour in a 1/4 inch of plaster of Paris from the top, or just watch it fill until it matches the thickness of that remaining chunk you have on the bottom there. That stuff dries white and hard as rock. Remove the tape and cardboard ring, and it'll probably look sloppy, but no worries, take a fine high grit sandpaper and work your away around the perimeter and along the bottom until you've reached the shape. Then mix up a bit of paint and try to match the same colours and tones you've got here, doesn't have to look perfect. Anyway that's the way I might try it if I were to make an attempt!

I haven't looked at too much repaired glass aside from what you guys have showed me and it actually looks awesome, gives it a lot of character. An attic mint bottle is so shiny and perfect and it looks like it was made just yesterday, and that kind of takes you back in time like you were the one who just bought the bottle from the sundries store, but these stitched together Frankenstein things almost seem more like artifacts or something, y'know? Like they could be in a museum alongside statues with missing legs and noses and that sort of thing, haha!

 

[john glassman]

Though cryers are something all too common for me, here are some I saved. The ones with the broken tops might become drink glasses (depending on if they have cracks or not and if I can find whole ones, which I'm determined to do!) and the other two were too cool not to glue back.View attachment 1265663View attachment 1265664

Your pic on the far right I have found both bottles before whiskey one in amber and beer in deep aqua.ps I find lot conn stuff!

 

[NJKLAGT]

Here are a couple of other compromises I've made. First we've got a big 1920s glass jug, and I made a little handle out of coat hanger and a hollowed out dowel, since the original had rusted away into the soil. Then we've got a nice couple of Vaselines. For some reason I can't stand displaying screw tops without lids. A cork top without a cork is okay but something about a screw top without a cap just looks so unfinished. These probably would have originally had tin lids, but I took these modern black plastic lids off of some one gallon cider jugs and used a Dremel tool to cut out the threads so that they would fit. And they pop on with a nice snap! Now I can put 'em on my shelf without feeling like there's something missing.