Glass

Julia Merkel <merkeljm [at] jmu__edu> writes

>I'm sorry to ask a "Dear Heloise" type question to such highly
>trained professionals, but a colleague of mine here in the library
>has inquired about the repair of a small, broken painted glass
>lampshade.  She would like to repair it herself as it has
>sentimental rather than monetary value. Is superglue a reasonable
>suggestion?  Is there an a preferred "over the counter" epoxy for
>the lay restorer? ...

I always recommend that glass be repaired by an experienced
conservator. A simple break may look easy, but glass is very
unforgiving, and a poor repair is not only visible, may yellow badly
in a few years, and is generally very difficult to redo. Painted
glass is even worse, as the epoxy will probably "bleed" in to the
painting and stain or darken it.

Hardware-store epoxies are notoriously poor in quality, and using
epoxies (or any adhesive on glass) is exceptionally difficult
without the proper equipment, conditions and experience.

Stephen Koob
Conservator
The Corning Museum of Glass
One Museum Way
Corning, NY 14830
607-974-8228
Fax: 607-974-8470


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 19:14
               Distributed: Saturday, September 10, 2005
                       Message Id: cdl-19-14-003
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