Dear friends of Orchid, A client gave me a very big ivory bracelet
which is fissured in one of the sides. Does anyone have an idea it
it’s possible to glue it, whith what kind of glue? Is there a kind of
paste to cover the fissure (not to see the very thin black line of the
fissure?). Thank you very much for your help, CAMILA from Buenos Aires
Camila, How about inlaying it with another stone such as turquoise or
with metal such as silver .If the shape of the fissure is not to your
liking you could change the shape to something that would fit the
design of the bracelet and then inlay it.You could also file another
piece of ivory until you have enough ivory dust to mix with some good
epoxy and fill the fissure with the mixture.After it dries file it off
and sand it to blend in and then lightly buff it.You could add a
coloring agent(die) to match the color of the ivory into the epoxy
mixture.Hope this helps.Hows things in Argentina.Good Luck J Morley
Coyote Ridge Studio
camila - the black line/fissure in the ivory bracelet is incidental
dust that started accumulating when the ivory material started
separating & giving it a crevice to collect. the best suggestion i
can offer is what i did under a similar situation: if the ivory is
set into or onto a frame & has warped away from it, remove the ivory
sections & reshape to fit, then go to the next part (if the bracelet
is a bangle without a frame the following step is the same): get some
1/2 round or square wire that matches the bracelet & is barely wider
than the fissure. draw out a design that incorporates the fissure
line as a design element. transfer the design to the bracelet.
carefully ream out enough of the design/fissure - use a flat sided
not ball burr - to inlay the wire so that it’s LEVEL with the
surrounding ivory. before gluing (E6000 is good) in the wire, gently
burnish the edges with an orange stick, or rounded-off chop stick, so
they’re slightly beveled the entire length. look around for design
ideas before reaming - good luck - ive