Restoring the Charm of Ancient Ceramics

The restoration of ancient ceramics uses modern chemical adhesives to do the trick. The restoration of ancient ceramics consists of dismantling and cleaning. The pieces will be cleaned thoroughly after being dismantled. Next is to splice the pieces and fill in the gaps. If there are gaps, we'll fill them with composite materials and then we'll polish the surface. After which, we do the painting to give it a ceramic texture. I'm Yang Yun. I graduated from Shanghai Arts and Crafts College and joined the Shanghai Museum in 1989, engaging in the restoration of cultural relics. As time went by, many new techniques were applied. The cleaning process traditionally used soaking, boiling, and wiping with ethyl alcohol. And now we use steam. Through high pressure and high temperature, it exerts a physical impact on the cross-section of the ceramics to rinse away the residues and the gaps. The splicing of pieces will be more seamless, so as to facilitate the next process. Through this high-power microscope, we can see the details of the ceramics, like the gas bubbles and original peel patterns. Observing these features through the microscope helps us improve the restoration techniques to better reproduce the original objects. Modern museums strictly forbid secondary damage to cultural relics. All the materials we now use are reversible. When our future technologies or materials are more advanced than the current ones, we can completely replace them by regarding, by degrading the restored objects to the original state of ceramic pieces, and then applying the new materials. For every ceramic artifact we get, we will have a discussion to find an optimal restoration solution. The whole restoration process will be recorded. The record files are very important for our future generations, as they include the source materials of the cultural relics and their original forms. This is invaluable information. I feel happiest at the last step because it's close to perfection, and it's also the time to see my efforts pay off, seeing the broken ceramics being restored to the perfect form as if fresh from ancient kilns. I feel a great sense of accomplishment and pride. I think a restorer must be calm and reflective. In this way, you won't be bored by this job and will constantly enrich your restoration skills. My goal is to pass down my 31 years of restoration experience to young people who are passionate about ceramic restoration and enable them to have better development. you