My mother made this ceramic Christmas tree with stand, back in the 1970s, during her ‘ceramic phase’. While I was putting away her Christmas decor, a few years ago, it came crashing down from the top shelf in her storage locker. From the sound, I knew it was in pieces, but couldn’t bring myself to actually look at the damage, until this Christmas. I thought I would try to repair it.
Putting the base back together was simple and looked passable. But trying ‘fix’ the tree took f - o - r - e - v - e - r , with less than perfect results.
I hoped a layer ‘snow’ (Epson Salts mixed with Mod Podge) would hide the cracks. It didn’t look too bad, until it was lit, then the repairs were painfully obvious.
Polyfilla, mainly on the inside of the tree, but also on some of most damaged areas on top of the branches helped. More ‘snow’ (this layer consisting of Christmas decor ‘snowflakes’ and white glue) to conceal the Polyfilla. It will do until next Christmas, when I might try another layer of Polyfilla to better hide the cracks.
The glowing lines remind me of Kintsugi, the Japanese repair technique which highlights the cracks with gold, making the damaged piece even more beautiful than the original.
Hey April, I used E6000 glue. The base went together very well but the tree itself was much more challenging. It seemed to have held together fine - I haven’t brought it out yet this year. One thing I learned - I put too much glue on first pieces - so they didn’t fit as closely together and subsequently, every other piece didn’t quite fit, leaving the gaps. Good luck!!
