Stephanie Guidera
Abstract
Through the repair of a plaster sculpture that had suffered complex breaks and material loss, an innovative backing material was created. When a broken vessel has a point of entry, balloons and plasticine clay have been used to create an interior surface to fill against. This sculpture was not cast to be hollow and would not have any interior access once repaired. In trying to keep repair materials at a minimum, weight balanced, and repairs strong, but not too strong, a backing material was created. Using Reemay and B72 bulked with glass microspheres, I created bandage-like strips to span the area of loss, adhering to the interior walls and to subsequent strips added. Additional B72 was added to the bandages only after they were in place, then allowed to completely dry and harden. This technique allowed for only a very thin layer of acrylic spackle to be added for texture and contour refining.