Introduction: How to Fix Broken China, Pottery or Porcelain

It happens to the best: One wrong move and grandmom's valuable china is not so valuable anymore.

Sifting through tons of instructables I found many useful methods and adopted them to this special case:

  • Using bees wax to hold the fragments in place
  • Using two-component adhesive to glue the parts together
  • Mixing baking powder with adhesive to fill missing spots
  • Using a heat gun to remove the wax.

Materials used:

  1. Bees wax (or any other wax)
  2. Heat gun
  3. Two-component adhesive (or any other glue, that's strong enough)
  4. Baking powder

Step 1: Glue and Hold the Pieces Together

  1. Make sure, all pieces are clean.
  2. Take a piece of wax, warm it up a little bit (by hand or with the heat gun) to make it shapeable
  3. Apply the glue with a tooth pick in a thin film
  4. Mount the first broken piece. Make sure, the broke edges fit together as good a possible.
  5. Press the bees wax onto the mounted piece so it stays in place while the adhesive is hardening. If necessary add additional wax to form a stable structure

Step 2: Continue With the Second Piece

  1. Again form a soft wax ball. Stick it on the second broken piece.
  2. Add adhesive on the edge. It is easier to handle, if you add the adhesive on the piece in your hand than on the teapot
  3. Press the piece in place until it perfectly fits and stays where it should stay.

Step 3: Tip for Small Pieces

Especially the last pieces need to be placed very precisely. Use the wax to handle small broken pieces helps a lot!

Step 4: Filling Up Holes

To fill in for missing pieces simple add baking soda to the adhesive

  1. Add small amounts of baking soda to the adhesive while stirring it until it becomes a thick paste
  2. Add paste to the hole in the china until it is closed.
  3. After a few seconds you should be able to form and smooth the surface with your fingers. If it is still too sticky, sprinkle a little bit of baking powder on it.

Step 5: Remove the Wax

Give the adhesive enough time to harden (mine took six hours).

Then use the head gun to melt the wax and remove it from the pottery

Little extra:

Prepare a mould with a wick to cast a candle from the melted wax.

Step 6: Enjoy Your Tea

Thanks a lot "lakesidepottery" for the idea with the stabilizing clay structure (I used wax instead): https://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-repair-brok...

Great idea mixing glue with baking soda "Engineer of None": https://www.instructables.com/id/Baking-Soda-Reinfo...