Pottery Mending

[eredien]

I have a hand-thrown ceramic teapot with matching mugs that a highschool friend of mine gave to raxvulpine and I at our engagement party. It's got a beautiful blue glaze and gives me a warm fuzzy feeling every time I look at it (and that's not always because I'm usually drinking warm tea from it--I really like ceramics as functional art objects). However, a few months in, I was washing it and hit the edge of the teapot spout against the sink, and the edge of the spout broke off. Now it drips when I go to pour tea.

I still have the original piece. As awesome as it would be to find someone in the area who'd do kintsugi on my teapot, I am guessing that that isn't practical in terms of time or money, and it's unlikely that I'd find someone with the requisite expertise anyway.

How should I repair it? I've seen that people have had success with Gorilla Glue, which claims to be food-safe (important since boiling water would be pouring right along the break). Somebody even suggested repairing ceramics with Carnation canned milk (!), which obviously won't work for me. I never thought I'd have to worry if repairs to home products were vegan...

Comments

[ab3nd.livejournal.com]

I say superglue, but that's because I'm batshit mad and use superglue to repair small cuts in my skin.

[eredien]

Superglue is not foodsafe, but will bond with skin (and also apparently hide and tortiose shells).

[ab3nd.livejournal.com]

Is there a story about you getting glued to a turtle in here somewhere?

[thomasyan.livejournal.com]

It's not? Isn't it used in surgery? Hm, is there stuff that's fine to use internally but not to eat?

[kaypendragon.livejournal.com]

I can verify that Gorilla glue is pretty awesome and does a great job of holding stuff together, but I have not mended teapots with it.

Aside from the vegan issue, I'd be wary of using Carnation to mend something you're going to be pouring boiling water into...

[copperwolf.livejournal.com]

I'm curious to know what you end up using and how it turns out. I have a few broken ceramic pieces, and before our latest move I purchased a glue labeled food-safe, but I didn't get around to actually using it (this project has been on my to-do list for years), and now I'm not sure where everything is. I don't remember what brand glue I bought.

Regarding medical use of superglue: I've heard of it being used to hold skin together, but skin is constantly wearing off and renewing itself, so even if the superglue stayed stuck on the skin, that skin would fall off after a few weeks. I didn't know it's used internally?

[kelkyag]

The precious metal clay repairs suggested in the same thread sound like an interesting option.