Questions people ask before sending a piece

Most can. Porcelain, stoneware, earthenware and bone china all take a repair well, and so do most glazed pieces.

The harder cases are pieces that have already been glued with epoxy or superglue, heavily crazed glazes, and very fine hairline cracks with no clean edge to work with. None of those are automatically a no — send photographs and I will tell you honestly what I think before you post anything.

Every repair is priced individually. The three things that move the price are the size of the piece, how many fragments it is in, and whether any of them are missing.

You will have a fixed price by email before any work starts, and there is no charge for the quotation.

It helps, but it is not essential. Missing fragments are rebuilt and filled before the seam is finished, which adds work and a little cost but does not prevent the repair.

Send everything you have, including small chips and anything that looks like dust in the bottom of the box. It is easier to leave a fragment out than to recreate it.

Wrap each fragment separately, pack them in a box with room to move on all sides, and use a second box around the first. Most damage in transit happens because pieces were loose or the box was too tight.

There is a step-by-step guide with materials and common mistakes.

Read the packaging guide →

That is most of what arrives. Pieces are photographed the day they get here so you know exactly what I received, kept in one place in the studio, and insured in both directions.

If a piece is irreplaceable to you, say so in your enquiry. It changes how I plan the work, not the price.

Four to eight weeks for most pieces, and longer for anything badly shattered. Traditional lacquer cures slowly and each layer has to harden before the next can go on, so the timeline is set by the material rather than by how busy the studio is.

Your quotation includes a realistic date, and I will tell you if anything changes.

Traditional urushi lacquer is not certified food safe, so I recommend against eating or drinking directly from a repaired surface.

In practice this rarely matters: a mended piece is well suited to display, dry goods and flowers, and a repair on the outside of a bowl is a different question from one across the inside. I will advise on your specific piece when I quote.