KILAUEA — Everyone has probably had something valuable chipped, broken, damaged or with missing parts that they wished could be restored to its original condition. While that might be impossible, restorer Mark Nilsson says he can make it look like
KILAUEA — Everyone has probably had something valuable chipped, broken, damaged or with missing parts that they wished could be restored to its original condition. While that might be impossible, restorer Mark Nilsson says he can make it look like the damage never happened.
“In most cases you will never know it was broken. It’s like the automobile with the dent repair. It’s basically a similar process,” said Nilsson, a professionally trained porcelain restorer.
Nilsson restores and repairs antique, collectible and sentimental pieces, as well as “just about anything,” he said, whether they are made of porcelain, wood, pottery, ceramics, opaque and frosted glass, stone, metal or plastic.
His studio is in his home in Kilauea, where he recently moved from Wailua Homesteads.
Nilsson started 16 years ago in Denver, where he did extensive restoration work for dealers, antique malls and maid services.
“Porcelain was my specialty. I also worked on pottery, which were similar. The same process can apply to other things,” he said.
On Kaua‘i for the last five and a half years, he has been applying the process to many unique items. He said he has been working as Grove Farm Museum’s official restorer, funded by a grant, to fix valuables as well as more common items.
“The family was well traveled, and their collection includes things from all over the world … porcelain, cloisonné, wood,” he said. “ I just finished three things within the last month, one was a Chinese board game in a box with a lot of different pieces. I also restored a porcelain pot in the lanai. Some cats tipped it over and broke it.”
Nilsson also fixes many Hawaiiana collectibles and other items for dealers on Kaua‘i, including Yellowfish Trading Co., Bambulei, Bungalow 9, Serendipity and Island Chic, according to a release.
“They’re older things that dealers are able to find on the Mainland or O‘ahu. (The Hawaiiana collectibles) were taken back by servicemen in the 1940s and 1950s and now they’re popular again, and the originals are very valuable even though they’re made of plaster of Paris,” said Nilsson.
Nilsson’s work is not as simple as gluing a broken piece together. He uses a five-stage process in which he glues, fills, sands, paints and finally glazes.
The porcelain repairs use porcelain fillers and sometimes don’t require any painting because the filler matches so well, he said. “The Milliput filler is what I use. They are the same fillers that the restorers in England use in the Queen’s china.”
He uses other fillers, some of them epoxies, to match the item. “I use whatever works best for what I’m working on,” he said.
His most recent challenging project was affixing a genie on a fiberglass lamp.
“I never repaired something like it. The genie had been broken. Luckily the lamp was hollow so I could put a support inside to hold up the genie,” he said.
It doesn’t hurt to be on the side of a genie but Nilsson seems to be doing some magic all on his own.
• Jane Esaki, business writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 257) or by emailling jesaki@thegardenisland.com.
