How to Repair a Terracotta Garden Decoration With Missing Parts

My neighbors had this sassy terracotta frog out front near the sidewalk. One winder I noticed the arm had broken off. I've always been interested in repairing everything from glass ornaments to clay posts and had done extensive research so I asked if they'd let me try it. After a false start, the arm turned out perfectly.

Except it was the wrong color. No worries that's what a layer of base paint is for.

• A variety of dental tools (these are also available in mechanics shops or a like Hobby-Lobby
• Sandpaper - From 320 grit all the way up to 1200 grit.
• Sculpey Bake & Bond- Bakeable adhesive for oven baked clay. This is god's gift to working with clay when part of it's already fired and part of it you just made. It works like a glue.
• Um... you'll need access to an oven
• Rust-Oleum Gloss protective enamel. In red (because that's what I owned and figured it'd not only blend with the terracotta it'd cover the white clay perfectly.
• When I went to add the base coat I realized the frog wasn't plain terracotta. Once upon a time it had been painted and glazed a probably looked really awesome. SO that changed my plan and my material needs a bit.
• Acrylic paint
• Paint brushes
• Oil paint - I used Sharpie oil paint pens
• Enamel paint - Testors Enamel Paint Markers
• Paint sponges for good measure
• Sculpey gloss glaze
• Rust-Oleum Crystal Clear Enamel
• Newspaper
• Sculpey III oven bake clay

This took me twice with full baking, before I was satisfied with the look of the arm. Shape the new clay as much as possible before attaching. You want it to be almost perfect.

Attach the new clay to the old clay. With the Sculpey back & bond. Follow the directions, DO NOT OVERCOOK. Pull it out of the oven, wait until it's comfortable to hold yet still mildly pliable. Now start shaping anything you dislike. Sometimes the new clay shrinks oddly in the oven. At this stage it's still pliable and can be manipulated into a more astatically pleasing shape.

Then let it dry completely, overnight, a week, your choice just as long as it's no longer malleable. Then pop out your sheets of sand paper. It you look closely at the arm I've sanded the arm into the terracotta for a seamless attachment. Yes you want to take this all the way up to 1600 grit hand paper.

Had I owned Orange rust-oleum I would have used it. I didn't, I owned red. So I figured that would make a good base layer to cover up the what arm and if the neighbors really wanted it terracotta colored they could buy a bottle of rust-oleum... and that's when I noticed that this piece used to be amazingly colored. Thru the years the glaze much have worn off. Now it was like "challenge accepted" and I had to do a complete refinish job.

1. SO, two to 3 layers of red rust-oleum - make sure it dries between layers.
2. Then let it sit for 2 weeks.
3. Then use a high grit sand paper too even out any of the the drips.
4. Then hit it with a light layer of rust-oleum, and let it sit for a month.

(And I cannot for the life of me find a picture of this)

Now it's time to decide how you want to paint your piece. I owned a bunch of acrylic so that's what I used. Yes it was dull, but I figured several layers of glaze would take care of that. No, just no. So I treated the acrylic like a second layer of base coat, with shadowing and outlines.

Wait for the acrylic to dry, give it 2 days to a week.

Painting with paint markers and Oil pens is not like using a pen to draw. You have to shake them really, really, really, reallly well, then depress them over and over again on scrap paper until a lot of the paint comes out at once.

Then you depress the pen on your piece. When you get a decent (not dripping, but doesn't dry on contact), you literally use your fingers to "dab dab dab" where you want the color to go. Try not to leave fingerprints. I have found it works best if you use two colors at once.

I promise you cannot mess this part up (well as long as you've put down newspaper), and it give's you the opportunity to try different variations. Anything you don't like can be fixed with the same process. The pics above illustrate 3 different variations I tried before settling on the final one.

Seriously, let it dry for a month.

Then use multiple coats of glaze, letting the glaze dry between coats or you'll end up smearing the underlying paint.

I have no idea if the glaze alone will stand up to the weather, but I know what will.... Crystal clear Enamel Rust-oleum, typically this is known as a topcoat amongst automotive hobbyists, it's easy to find at both hardware stores and automotive stores. Apply 2 or more coats, let dry between coats. And then let dry for a month before you move it outside.

Cheers!