June 16, 2013

Before & After

I’ve been playing around this weekend with some of the formulas for cleaning the pieces of china that I bought at auction last week. After some serious scrubbing with vinegar and salt, the smell of which gagged me, and then with a paste of baking soda and water, I realized that they don’t work too well. I went back to my life philosophy: Better Living Through Chemicals! {kidding}.

One of the pieces was in much worse shape than all of the others. The image on the left is the piece as I bought it at auction. The image on the right is after an all-day soak with a paste of Soft Scrub® with bleach. There is a marked improvement after this process.

           Before After Soft Scrub
 

Next, I pulled out the Oxyclean® and tried that. I filled the bowl with water and added about an eighth of a cup of powdered Oxyclean, mixed it up so it all dissolved, and let it sit for several hours.  You can see that almost all of the staining, except for the big stain on the left, which actually almost looks like a burn mark, is gone. And that stain on the left is reduced considerably. There’s a fold in the lower right, but that almost as much of a shadow than discolouration. I’ve got this piece soaking again so I can see if I can get rid of some of the staining around the rim, and on the reverse side.

I am pretty pleased with the outcome of this experiment!

13 comments:

  1. Meg,
    I totally need your help! Bought a white ironstone bowl in London for a great price, but it is badly stained. Let me know your results!

    Tom and I just returned home from Sweden and Denmark. Trying my hardest to stay awake and not go to bed too early :(

    I want to come out in August to see you and visit Halcyon. A couple more trips in June and July and then here all of August.

    x Loi

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  2. It's coming along nicely. Takes patience and repeated applications. But Comet works better than Soft Scrub. Beautiful piece!

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  3. Good to know. I have been dragging my feet with some of the less valuable/sentimental pieces and afraid for the others.

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  4. I use Bon Ami on everything - even things that they say not to use it on - and it has never scratched. It doesn't have bleach in it so it may not work for this piece but it is inexpensive and may be worth a try.

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  5. Thanks for all this great info. I have a tray that I'm going to try this on. I think I'll go right to Oxyclean. ;-)
    I sent you an email via Etsy. Let me know if you received it. Thanks ~ Sarah

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  6. I find Oxyclean to be amazing on carpets, upholstery, clothes. I'm not surprised it helped here.

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  7. Oxyclean works beautifully for linens, a miracle and doesn't stress the fiber like bleach does. I LOVE it.

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  8. Oxyclean everytime -amazing - same goes for the mr. clean magic eraser! have you tried that??

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  9. Hi Meg, Wow! Having bought pieces of ironstone and blue & white that were in similar condition, I know what you have been going through to get this one particular piece back into shape. Whatever you have been doing, it is working!! Congratulations!
    Mary

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  10. Hi Meg,
    Love to read about your adventures, great finds, and your handsome dog:)
    You've done a great job on your newest treasures...I've used denture tablets and water to clean old vases and china, and, they can really do the trick getting discolorations our of glass and china. Add tablet, add water, and let the mixture sit for several hours.
    Happy treasure hunting,
    Shari

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  11. it looks wonderful, keep up the good work. let me know what works best. xxpeggybraswelldesign.com

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  12. Dear Meg what a difference you have made in this gorgeous piece. I believe in Oxyclean!

    xoxo
    Karena
    Art by Karena

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  13. You must be pleased with the result! So those ads are true after all...

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