Trash...can be treasure! The tale of the trash frog....

Big ol' sad puppy eyes peered at me from the kitchen doorway and my husband asked "do you think you can fix this?"

He held in his hands a brightly decorated 20 inch long ceramic frog....one hand held the frog and the other held one of the frogs legs which had been broken off. He had found the cast-aside on top of someones trash can while on his early morning bike ride.

Some of the frogs toes were missing as well.

I smiled at took the damaged frog from him and answered "sure it can be fixed".

In the studio I eyed the broken amphibian....I gathered my repair materials and began the work.

Over the span of about a week I spent an early morning hour or two on the repairs....

Here is the frog in his broken form...

I have found a wonderful repair material ....it is called J.B.Weld and it is a two part bonding material that is as tough as nails!. You can purchase the J.B.Weld at auto parts stores and other large department stores. It is not temperature sensitive for hot or cold and can be used to repair resin horses too.

After applying a thin application to the insides of the cracked edge of the frogs arm I pressed the two pieces together and applied painters tape to keep things secure until dry...

Once dry I removed the tape...now time to fill the gaping hole....I used the Aves "Fix It" for this part of the repair....the Aves "Fix It" is a two part appoxy that can be sanded once dry. Be sure to use latex gloves when handling any of the appoxy materials. I stuffed a small piece of newspaper into the gaping hole for filler...

After fixing filling the hole at the frogs elbow I had to sculpt him some new toes....I used toothpicks as the framework to build the layers of appoxy for the frogs toes....

Once the appoxy was dry on the toes I sanded them all down in the areas where they met the ceramic.....then I applied some primer with a brush....and then it was painting time!

I then went back and did some additional filling in of un-level areas on the toes with my modeling paste....and then I repainted the toes and the area at the frogs elbow....repainted in photo below elbow on the right....

The repainted side in the picture above is the elbow on the right....

Here are comparisons of the before and after...before...

and after..

And now here he is all done! I used some Krylon Triple Thick spray for the final high gloss finish....

Just in time for Fathers day this Sunday! Hubs will be surprised!

After doing a little research...based on the "Mexico" and the odd few letter signature on the bottom of the frog...I learned that these ceramic frogs are called "Televera" wall art...there are many types and the frogs are just one example of these brightly colored ornaments. I saw many wall frogs that were painted in the style of this one by a few artists...but none of the names matched the letters on our frog...

I was glad that I could repair this work of art....."Trash Frog" will be enjoyed for many more years to come!

Happy Fathers day this Sunday to all the Dads and Grand Dads out there! Enjoy your day!

Smiles,

C.S.Richmond Studios