Caring for ceramic masks and reliefs

Handling, dusting, hanging and moving glazed and terracotta pieces.

Ceramic sculpture is durable in the way that stone is durable and fragile in the way that eggshell is fragile. The rules for looking after it are simple: handle it with two hands, keep water and heat off it, hang it on a fixing that carries at least twice its weight, and move it in one calm journey.

Pick a piece up by the thickest, strongest part of its body, not by a nose, a lip, a fin, or the edge of a mask. Support the weight underneath, and use two hands even for a small piece; a slip that would only rattle a plate can shear the ear off a mask. If you must set a mask face-down for cleaning or hanging, do so on a folded towel on a flat surface.

Dust every few weeks with a soft, dry, natural-hair brush. For a glazed surface, a slightly damp microfibre cloth is safe on the flat parts, but never on any modelled feature (an eye, a lash, a curl); water can carry dust into hairline cracks in the glaze. For a terracotta or bisque piece, no water at all: a brush only, because unglazed clay is porous and staining is permanent. Never use household cleaners, sprays, wet wipes, alcohol or vinegar, and never put a ceramic in the dishwasher, however sturdy it feels.

Sunlight does not fade a glaze in the way that it fades a pigment, but it does heat the piece. A ceramic mask in direct summer sun on a south-facing wall may reach 40 or 50 degrees Celsius, and cool back overnight to 15; the cycle stresses the glaze layer, which sits on the clay body like ice on a pond. Hang in a bright but indirect spot; if the only wall is a hot wall, take the piece down for the warmest weeks of the year.

Weigh every ceramic before you hang it, on the kitchen scales, and choose a fixing rated to at least twice that weight. A mask of one to three kilograms will hang safely on a heavy-duty picture hook nailed through plaster. Between three and eight kilograms, use a single screw into a wall plug rated for that weight. Above eight kilograms, use two screws through wall plugs, or one screw straight into a stud. A ceramic mask usually has a small loop or slot cast into the reverse; hook the loop over the fixing so the piece rests flat on the wall, with the weight taken by the wall as well as by the hook. Do not use adhesive strips, however strong they claim to be; they release without warning when the room warms.

Move a piece in one journey, from wall to hand to soft surface, without setting it down halfway. If you need to move a ceramic to another room, wrap it loosely in a soft cloth or a sheet of bubble wrap and carry it, do not slide it. In a house move, tell the removals firm which items are ceramic and pack them yourself: a cardboard box with a lining of soft blankets, each piece wrapped separately in bubble wrap, no two pieces touching, the box marked “fragile, this way up” on every face. Do not pack a ceramic mask face-down; pack it on its back with the face towards the top of the box.

For outdoor ceramic (garden reliefs, planters, small sculpture), the two enemies are frost and drainage. Water sits in any dip, freezes, expands and cracks the piece; a garden ceramic sold as outdoor-safe is either high-fired stoneware or has a drainage hole. Bring frost-tender pieces inside for the coldest months, or wrap them in horticultural fleece and lift them onto pot feet so the base does not sit in water.

If a piece is chipped or cracked, keep the fragment (in a small labelled envelope with any dust) and write to the studio. Some losses can be inpainted so they disappear at reading distance; others become part of the object’s life. The studio will say which is which before you do anything to the piece, and will suggest a ceramic conservator when a full restoration is the right course.

Michael, for the studio