Someone from our church rescued a large St Francis of Assisi garden statue that was damaged in the rose garden by some snowmobilers who were trespassing on the church property. The weathered statue was brought inside the church lobby to protect it from further damage but its base was already damaged and it fell down, receiving further damage to the head.
Here is the statue in question. You can see the back of the neck was very thin. The statue was propped up by a pillow against a glass table from where I did the reattachment of the head. The fingers had to be rebuilt with green body filler.
The statue was wrapped in a blanket and given to George to see if his brother Paul would fix it, but his brother wasn't feeling well so I took the statue home to see if there was a possibility of fixing it myself. When George removed it from the car, the head fell on the cement floor where the top of the head received major damage with cracks and a hole. Luckily only the top of the head received further damage.
I went online to see how to fix a fiberglass garden statue and my husband bought a container of short fiber auto body filler and some hardener at an Auto Machinery shop. I sanded the areas to be fixed and slowly started to mix the filler and hardener and began to repair the top of the head from the inside and shave the excess. That stuff hardens so fast, you can only do a little bit at a time.
When attaching the head, I had to hold the head in place and the filler hardened on my paring knife. I couldn't even clean it afterward and had to throw it away.
When I finished sanding the excess green filler the best I could, I mixed the following four following colors, off-white, black, cobblestone, and moss-green acrylic paint, and got a color that was close to the finish. My years as a ceramic teacher came in handy. When the paint dried, I sprayed the painted area with a Super matte spray and the job was done.
My first fiberglass statue repair job... As you can see I did not clean the statue, just the parts that needed some body filler.
I have no idea to whom this statue belongs to, but I did the best that I could. If I was to do this kind of job again, I would get myself a Dremel kit as it was difficult to smooth in the neck crevis.
That was the most satisfying thing that I did last Monday.
Thanks for your comments and I hope spring has found you.
Well done. Loud applause from here.
ReplyDeleteWow Julia, I think it looks professional and job well done!!!!!
ReplyDeleteHe looks like almost new. Great job!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great job in fixing a most precious saint. So glad you were able to ring him back to life and shame on folks for trespassing. Janice
ReplyDeleteThat looks amazing! You are so talented and I think you should keep that statue indoors from now on to preserve it. I think I'm going to look for a St. Francis stature for my garden. Of course it will be much smaller! Have a good week Julia! I made it home safe and sound from Midge's and feeling much better.
ReplyDeletePoor St. Francis - he really had a rough time of it, didn't he? But you did an incredibly amazing job on the repairs! I am so impressed! Nothing I could ever even imagine doing. St. Francis was surely smiling down on you for preserving his image so lovingly. ~Robin~ (TheCrankyCrow)
ReplyDeleteWhat an excellent repair you’ve done!! Spring’s temperatures are slow to arrive, though the unseasonably warm weather in February prompted our pear trees and blueberry bushes to begin to blossom. I’m not sure they will recover from the successive below-freezing nights we’ve had in the past week.
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness I AM SO PROUD of you. I would never ever know where to begin.
ReplyDeleteDr. Julia...I am SO IMPRESSED!!! He looks good as new.
ReplyDeleteWOW, Julia, you continue to amaze me. Well done. I know that those statues are not cheap. And who ever gifted it, will be thankful to know it was saved.
ReplyDeleteWill St. Francis go back to the church yard?
St Francis will be returned to the church garden where it used to be when the snow is gone. There are a number of small gardens that are being looked after by some parishioners and they care each particular garden. I'm not sure of who is the person who is taking care of that particular garden. I may find out later.
ReplyDeleteYou did such a wonderful job at restoring the St. Francis statue! I am sure the church will be so thankful to have it sitting in the garden once again!
ReplyDeleteYou did such a great job at restoring the statue. I am sure the church appreciates you and will be so glad to see it back in their garden!
ReplyDeleteWow, you did a great job.
ReplyDeleteBravo Julia! You did such a good job! I would have been very sad to have seen it damaged like that but not thought I'd have the ability to help- your ceramic teacher training certainly did help!
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