Trying to piece together a broken pot from a dig site took me three whole days

I was working on a dig in New Mexico last month, and we found what looked like a plain storage pot in pieces. My job was to put it back together, and I figured it would be a quick afternoon thing. Wrong. The pieces were all the same color and none of the breaks were clean, so nothing fit right at first. I had to sort them by thickness and curve, which took forever. After about 16 hours spread over three days, I finally got the main shape. It turned out to have a cool zigzag pattern near the base we couldn't see before. Has anyone else had a simple find turn into a huge puzzle like that? What's your method for tricky pottery?

3 comments

3 Comments

wren8062mo ago

My friend glued a bowl back together and it looked like a modern art piece.

laura2112mo ago

That's a cool way to look at it, @wren806. Did your friend decide to keep it as art, or is it back to being a regular bowl now? I've had some repairs turn into permanent display pieces.

the_jason21d ago

Did you see that article about the guy who turned his broken vase into a lamp? It was on some design blog last week. Your friend's bowl sounds like it could be in a gallery too. Sometimes the cracks and glue lines just add character. I've got a mug with a handle I glued back on and it's my favorite one now. It's funny how something broken can become more interesting than when it was perfect.