Mostly Mended Mug

It won’t win any beauty contest, but I have my favorite mug back. I went to a hardware store and perused the myriad adhesives they offered. I knew from the start that super glue (cyanoacrylate), which always shows promise then fails, wouldn’t work. It had to be something that had toughness, stickiness, heatproofness, idiotproofness, and didn’t involve too much skill to use.

SILICONE! It’s tough, waterproof, heatproof, microwaveproof, dishwasherproof, and idiotproof. And the label said it works on ceramic! What more could you ask? Well, a little more skill would have helped. I didn’t get the main part of the break back on exactly right, but it’s only off a little bit. One part of the mug on the rim won’t be replaced because it pretty much shattered into dust, and I’m no arky-ologist type who’s going to spend half a lifetime with tweezers and a magnifier restoring it perfectly.

Twenty-four hours later, I trimmed off the squeezed-out glue with my pocket knife. The part of the rim where I didn’t have a part was still bright white and pretty ugly, so I did a touch-up with a green Sharpie pen. A totally serviceable repair, if I say so myself!