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Restoration and repair has always seemed like magic to the casual collector. How can someone take a broken, shattered piece of pottery, then make it look like new again? Joan Riba of Give Me A Break shares some of her restoration and repair experience with cookie jar and pottery collectors.

Riba has been doing restoration since 1995. She took an intense class, then started experimenting and "inventing" methods of her own, including a method of creating missing porcelain lace. All the while combining them with the techniques she was taught. Riba has always had an artistic background -- her Mom, aunt and cousin are all award winning artists. She is also an award winner, but her awards were edible -- in cake decorating. Riba would be quite disappointed if a Best of Show Ribbon was not won. But that disappointment only happened one time!

Joan credits the techniques and skills developed and used in cake decorating, as well as custom Christmas ornaments, with helping her make an easy transition to repairing and restoration of pottery. One example of this was fellow students in the restoration classes had to write down recipes to make various colors, but she had it all in her head naturally.

With her incredible gift for color and excellent techniques in decorating, Joan has built up an exciting and busy career as a restoration and repair person -- Give Me A Break. She performs invisible repairs, fixes cracks, chips and even makes missing pieces.

I asked Joan what she considered her biggest accomplishment, and she said "I feel a great amount of accomplishment with all my work. The piece that gave me the greatest feeling of accomplishment wasn't the most difficult piece I worked on. It was a porcelain doll that belongs to an elderly woman who wanted to pass it down to her great-granddaughter. Half of one of the legs was missing, so I was able to mold the other leg and create the missing piece. She was so thrilled to see it repaired that she just took my hands in her hands, thanking me over and over. It made me feel wonderful to be able to help her give a gift of something that meant that much and pass it along to the great-granddaughter."

This shaker was $85. to repair.

With just a little bit of prodding, she was convinced to give us ballpark figures on restorations and repairs. A restorer really needs to see and feel each piece to give an exact price for repairs, but here are some very general figures. Please NOTE these are just estimates to give you a rough idea of what something might cost to fix it!

• There is an $85. piece minimum.
• Chips are $50. each, unless they are large, in a textured area or in a highly detailed area, then they are more expensive.
• Cracks range from $35 to $100 per inch, depending on the number of colors, and the amount of detail and/or texture in the area of the crack.
• Fingers are $75. each.
• Molding a piece from another piece starts at $75.
• Custom painting or repainting a cookie jar usually costs $150.
• Items broken into multiple pieces are considered "disasters" and are extremely difficult and expensive to restore.

Joan is happy to partially restore disasters so the cost is less. Most times, the "disasters" display well on a shelf with a minimum amount of repair. Many times it doesn't pay to have pieces restored for resale. Joan always tries to talk to her customers and get information from them as to why they want the piece restored. Sometimes the piece has a lot of sentimental value, but isn't really worth putting a lot of money into it -- at this time she will work with customer to figure out a way to make it look better without fully restoring it.

The cost to repair this piece was $100.

Many times the piece will look great on display, even though it isn't meticulously restored. "I want my customer to be happy, so I'm pleased to work with them to decide what the best way to approach the repair of their piece. I also make sure that people understand that this is cosmetic restoration and the pieces can not be used after they are restored. They can be cleaned with a damp cloth, but they can not be used for food, soaked, or scrubbed."

"I am very up front with people when I think they shouldn't bother restoring a piece. If the repair will cost more than the piece is worth, I tell them I think they shouldn't bother having it restored. Many times, a mint piece could be purchased for less than it would cost to repair the damaged piece. I always suggest they buy another piece if the piece isn't sentimental, and if the repair will cost the same, or more than a mint piece would cost."

Want more information? Contact Joan Riba.