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Looking after handmade things

Looking after handmade things

Author :
Noah Clarke
Category :
Care
Date :

Ceramics

Glazed stoneware is dishwasher safe and will survive the dishwasher for longer than the dishwasher survives. What it will not survive is thermal shock: boiling water into a cold pot, or a hot pot onto a cold granite worktop. Warm it first, or accept that one day there will be a crack.

Unglazed surfaces will take a stain from oil and turmeric. That is patina if you like it and a mark if you do not; there is no way to have an unglazed surface and no history.

Prints on paper

Light is the enemy, and it is specifically ultraviolet light. Direct sun will shift a pigment in a year. UV-filtering glazing in the frame solves most of it and costs very little more than ordinary glass.

Do not hang paper in a bathroom. Humidity cycles make it cockle inside the frame and no amount of flattening puts it back.

Textiles

Wash cool, wash rarely, dry flat. Undyed cotton will soften and shrink slightly on the first wash and then stay put. Sunlight is fine for drying and terrible for storage.

Wood

Hardwax oil wants renewing perhaps once a year on something handled daily and once a decade on something hung on a wall. A cloth, a teaspoon of oil, ten minutes, and it looks new. Nothing else is needed and nothing else helps.