Antique Glass Repair Project Repair Gallery

Antique glass eye cup repair broken foot

This is the first antique glass eye cup I have ever see and repaired .   I tried it to see if it worked. I get pumice in my eye some times when polishing.  When this  piece was sent to me it only had a half a foot.  I cut off  what was left of the foot and ground the stem flat.  I made a new green glass foot. When making a new foot it is important to add some imperfections.   The old foot had seeds and cords in it.  Seeds  are small bubbles and cords are  lines of  distortion created from impurities in the glass .

Green Glass Eye Cup With New Foot

Antique Glass Eye Cup

I made a new foot for the vintage glass eye cup.

Tags: Antique Crystal repair, Antique Glass Repair, Crystal Repair, Crystal Restoration, Glueing Glass

Crystal Repair broken frosted glass figurine

The broken  glass leopard is made from  borosilicate glass  ( pyrex ).   This type of glass  has a very low expansion coefficient so it  can be reheated .   There is a small piece missing were the leg broke.

Most pieces of glass can not be fused back together so I use UV cured adhesive .

fusing glass leg

I used a torch and fused the broken glass leg .   I shaped the leg and fill in the area were the chip was missing.   I frosted the area to matched .

Repaired Glass Leopard

Tags: Antique Crystal repair, Antique Glass Repair, Broken Crystal Repair, Crystal Figurine Repair, Crystal Repair

Antique glass tray repair engraved mirror

The antique glass tray was broken and repairing the pieces was not an option.  I used the old glass for a pattern .   Then using a variety stones , grinding wheels and diamond wheels I recreated a new engraved glass tray.

Engraved Glass Tray

The replacement etched glass tray may not be a perfect match but it is close enough to hold the memories.

Tags: Antique Glass Repair, Crystal Repair, Engraved glass repair, Etched glass repair, Vintage Glass Repair

Antique Glass Repair Broken Cut Crystal Decanter

The neck of the decanter was broken in many pieces and was repaired .  The repair was unacceptable and I needed a plan B.  The design engraved on the antique glass decanter gave me a good place to cut off the broken parts.

I fabricated a new neck and stone cut the  design .

Stain on the bottom of decanter " sick "

A new neck for an antique glass decanter

Stone cut design on new neck

Antique Glass Decanter

New neck antique glass decanter

The replacement part looks good and makes the antique  cut glass decanter usable again.  The set is complete and ready for the next party.

Tags: Antique Crystal repair, Antique Glass Repair, Crystal Repair, Crystal Restoration

Antique Glass Repair broken stopper

The antique decanter had a  stopper broken off  in the neck .  I drilled the stuck  stopper out of the crystal decanter.   Then I make a new stopper and had to fit it in the neck.

Antique Glass Decanter fit new stopper

The frosted area is were I ground the new part of the stopper to fit the antique glass decanter.  I used  # 120 grit first to hand lapped  the stopper .  I repeated the lapping process using  # 220 grit  , # 400 grit , and # 600 grit followed by polishing .   The antique glass decanters had polished stoppers.

Antique Crystal Decanter with Polished Neck

Bringing the the family heirloom back to its original beauty  is very rewarding.  They need to clean the stopper when there is sweet liquor being stored in the antique glass decanter .  This will prevent the stopper from getting stuck again.

Tags: Antique Crystal repair, Antique Glass Repair, Crystal Repair, Crystal Restoration, Glass Stopper Repair

Antique Glass Repair Seuben Crystal Penguin

The antique glass penguin was broken and put away years ago.  The glass was discovered and the search was on to find some one to repair it.  The one fin was broken off and many of the small pieces were lost.  That  Steuben Crystal penguin held memories of years go by.

Steuben Crystal Penguin Repair

A piece of Steubn Crystal from a broken ashtray

new wing

Remove broken wing

Sizing Up New Wing

New Wing

I used a piece of Steuben Crystal to sculpt the replacement wing because of the color . Steuben is forty nine percent lead and very clear.  The lead also makes it very soft so I have to use the very best cerium oxide for the final step in the polishing process.

Tags: Antique Crystal repair, Antique Glass Repair, Crystal Repair, Crystal Restoration, Steuben Crystal Repair

Antique Glass Repair Chipped Daum Turtle

The rare Daum Glass turtle had a chip on the shell.  Grinding and polishing the chip is not an option. The difficulty is matching the density when filling the chip.  Antique Daum cast glass has a lot of detail and color . The translucent glass is very beautiful.

antique chipped glass repair

Tags: Antique Crystal repair, Antique Glass Repair, Chipped Crystal Repair, Crystal Repair, Crystal Restoration, Daum Glass Repair

Crystal repair broken Orrefors candlestick

The blue stem Orrefors candlesticks were broken in many places  both the candle cups and one of the bases. I needed to make replacement candle cups and reattach the base.

Replacement Pieces

Tags: Antique Crystal repair, Antique Glass Repair, Broken Crystal Repair, Crystal Repair, Crystal Restoration, Orrefors Crystal Repair

antique glass bowl repair broken pressed glass

It’s not an expensive piece but she needed it back together .  The  antique opalescent  pressed glass bowl was broken into many pieces.

Broke Antique Glass Bowl Before Repair

The breaks were very clean there were no little chips . This made it a very good repair .

Antique Pressed Glass Bowl After Restoration

Tags: Antique Glass Repair, Broken Glass Glued, Pressed Glass Repair

Steuben Crystal Candlestick Repair Broken Top

The dinner is over and you didn’t put out the candles .  They burn down and crack the tops of the crystal candlesticks.   I can make a new top cut off the old and replace it.

Steuben Crystal Candlestick with broken top

New Candle cup

Broken candlestick less the top

Tags: Antique Crystal repair, Antique Glass Repair, Crystal Repair, Crystal Restoration, Steuben Crystal

Art Deco Light Repair Glass Slip Shade

Two slip shades were broken during a remodeling project .   One shade was broken into about  ten pieces and one was broken into hundreds of pieces . I repaired  one shade  and reproduced one shade  .  Using a good shade as a form I cast a mold to make a new glass deco shade.

new Art Deco Slip Shade

original  shade

Replacement shade

casting mold

mold

High temperature plaster and silica mold for make new glass shade.

Tags: Antique Glass Repair, Art Deco Lamp Repair, Cast Glass Shade, Glass Panel Lamp Repair, Slip Shade Repair

Broken Antique Glass Candlestick Repair

A every common event after dinner is to hear a little ping sound .  Yes you forgot to put out the candles and they burnt down and broke the top of your antique crystal candlesticks .  I used a pair of bobeches to recreate new tops.   Crystal repair requires a little out of the box thinking.

Cystal candlestick with broken top

Tags: Antique Crystal repair, Antique Glass Repair, Broken Glass Candlestick Repair, Crystal Candlestick repair, Crystal Repair, Crystal Restoration

Carnival Glass Depression Glass Pressed Glass bowl repair

The bowl was broken in half and in need of restoration.  It was a clean break so I think would guess hot water in the sink was the culprit . This type of repair comes out very good because of the color and texture.  Cracked glass bowls are sent to me all the time.

Carnival Glass Bowl

Repaired Carnival Glass Bowl

Tags: Antique Glass Repair, Broken Carnival Glass Repair, Broken Crystal Repair, Broken Glass Glued, Glueing Glass

Antique Broken Glass Figurine Repair

The glass fruit basket has been broken for years.  Several leaves were broken off and lost .   I needed to recreate some new leaves an attach them .  I used green , yellow and white glass to make the new leaves.

Tags: Antique Glass Repair, Broken Glass Glued, Crystal Figurine Repair, Glass Figurine Repair, Glueing Glass