Repair it, don't toss it Repair it, don't toss it (February 21, 2003)

By Muoi Tran

It's a fact of life. Expensive vases break. Sentimental heirlooms fall apart. Antique furniture pieces serve as scratching posts for pets. And all sorts of disasters happen in the presence of tiny, mischievous hands.

But don't despair. Almost anything can be repaired, according to several restoration specialists in the area.

They're the "Dr. Fix-Its" of odd things around the house. Equipped with sandblasters and drill presses to tiny needles and brushes, restoration artists do not create new pieces. But, they certainly are creative when it comes to finding the right solution for each job.

So, before you toss out those pieces of a once-beautiful platter or think about donating your grandmother's moth-eaten shawl, check with one of the restoration specialists first.

Ceramic and glass

Rho Brown, owner and senior conservator of the Restoration Studio in Los Altos, specializes in ceramic and glass restoration. She also works with ivory, jade, wood, marble, stone and bronze, with her extensive museum conservation experience in Europe and Russia. No project is "undoable" for Brown, even if it involves putting together 100 pieces. "Everything can be fixed to a certain degree," Brown said.

Brown explained that there are three levels of repairs. The first is "structural" treatment only, which means reattaching the pieces, but the lines where the pieces are joined are still visible.

The second is bonding, filling and coloring of chips, nicks or holes. "The repairs will be visible from a distance of two or three feet, but not obvious to most people," Brown added. The third takes the most time and work, where missing parts are painstakingly recreated. But this is worth it for some people, Brown said, because the quality of the finished work is almost like new.

However, Brown said that she would not do "unethical" repairs. For example, if a vase originally had two handles, but is missing one, she would create a second handle instead of remove the one that is still attached.

Also, Brown advised against trying to do repairs yourself. She said she often spends a lot of time removing Superglue from pieces before she actually can start putting them together.

Of the many objects that she has reconstructed, the one with the most sentimental value is a porcelain doll that was broken into 15 parts, Brown said. The client received the doll from her grandmother at age 12, but she had dropped it. Twenty-two years later, she brought the pieces to Brown, who transformed them back into a doll.

Who: Rho Brown, Restoration Studio, Contact: (650) 948-4245 or visit www.restorationstudio.com

Wood

Stephen Slusser, an expert woodcarver, is owner of Artistic Furniture in Palo Alto. Slusser works with all types of wood, which he considers a "living thing." He also works with leather and metal.

Slusser, who said he hasn't been stumped yet, enjoys working on challenging repairs -- the kind where most people would say, "This can't be done."

"The more antique, the more intricate, the more difficult a project is," Slusser said, "the more interesting it is."

Some memorable pieces that he's fixed are a life-size carousel horse and an elephant chair. Yes -- an elephant chair is what you use to sit on top of an elephant, Slusser explained.

Because each repair is different, Slusser said that he has gained a lot of experience by experimenting. However, it is important to maintain the integrity of antiques when restoring them, he added. You won't catch Slusser using Phillips-head screws in any antiques he repairs.

By using hand tools, instead of modern power tools, Slusser said that he "takes the best of the present to preserve the past." While he owns a drill press, he mainly uses a scrolling saw and other hand tools such as a shaper and carving tool.

Who: Stephen Slusser, Artistic Furniture, Contact: (650) 493-8840. Pick up and delivery service is provided.

Metal

Victor Arbogast is guaranteed to have an answer to all your metal-related needs.

From his Mountain View home studio, Arbogast, who is equipped with a sandblaster and welding equipment, does just about everything -- including welding, punching, sheering, bending, drilling, sawing, cutting and bolting. He does not do castings, however.

In the 1980s, Arbogast focused mostly on industrial, construction-related projects. But more recently, he's been working on smaller-scale projects, such as decorative or functional restorations to home appliances and metal objects around the house.

From fixing gates to heaters to register covers and wood-burning stoves to old cast-iron bathtubs, Arbogast considers himself an MD -- a metal doctor.

Who: Victor Arbogast, Contact: 966-8686 or visit www.victorarbogast.com

Wool, silk and other textiles

Although master reweavers are hard to find these days, there are a few specialists left in the area. Reweaving Studio, which has been in business for many years, is located on El Camino Real in Palo Alto.

The craft of reweaving involves using threads taken from hidden parts of a garment to repair visible cigarette burns, tears and damage from moths. Sometimes, if the damage is fairly large, a different piece of fabric must be used to reinforce it from behind.

Besides Reweaving Studio, some dry-cleaning shops might offer reweaving and fabric repair services. Without a Trace, a Chicago-based online company, say that they receive many projects from the Bay Area.

Who: Reweaving Studio, Contact: (650) 858-2021 Also: Visit Without a Trace at www.withoutatrace.com