Identified flying objects, and how to repair a broken crock pot handle...a tutorial of sorts.

I'm usually good at catching, but I got caught out twice this week. First I didn't notice the white book...The extremely heavy white book, balancing on top of the white box as I took it off the too high shelf, until THUCKK...it hit me, BAM right across the bridge of my nose. I had one of those moments where you think you are either going to be sick, or faint. I caught my breath, dashed for the frozen peas thinking I'd broken my nose (again), held the bag to my aching face and realised that blood was dripping down my cheek. Thankfully it wasn't broken, nor did I get black eyes, but I now have a painful nose with a crusty scar right across the bridge...that interestingly 'A' thinks is very attractive...Who would have known...Maybe he likes the Frida Kahlo look. 

The second time was when I opened my overly crowded store cupboard and a glass jar of something, I think it was honey, shot out like a small cannon ball. It landed on my lovely, new-to-me, £5 bargain crock pot, that was sitting in pride of place on the kitchen counter. It smashed a big piece off the lid and removed one of the handles off the base completely. 

I know what you're thinking. There is a moral to this story. If I'd had, nice, tidy, organised cupboards and shelves, these two accidents would not have happened. This is true and I will tidy them, but not today.

But what I did do today was repair my crock pot handle and lid. Here's how:-

This was my lovely crock pot before the honey canon ball attack:

after:

To repair a damaged handle you will need:

• A clean tidy area to work
• Adhesive that will stick ceramic.  I used epoxy resin. It sticks ceramics, is clear, and water resistant. It's not intended for items that contain food or drink but as I wasn't using it for the main body, just the handle; I thought it would be fine to use. 
• Some kind of disposable container, or a piece of card to mix the resin.  
• There should be a little spatula with the resin but if not, a cotton bud or a spent match stick would do.
• A craft knife and cutting board.
• Fimo modelling clay.

The whole handle  came off in one piece apart from the last few inches that splintered, so I didn't save them. To begin repairing the crock pot I stuck the remaining piece of handle back in place. Here are the instructions: 

1. Make sure that the areas that need sticking, are clean and dry. If the surface is smooth it may help them adhere to each other if you  roughened them a little with sandpaper.
2. Squeeze out equal measures of the two ingredients that make up the resin. Mix together for thirty seconds.
3. Apply some of the resin to both surfaces that need sticking and then hold them in place. The instruction on my resin said that it would set in 90 seconds. They lied...it doesn't. You need to hold it in place for at least ten minutes, or maybe longer. It will work if you are patient. It's worth bearing this in mind when setting up your work area. You may like to have a chair close by and make sure that you can comfortably hold the piece in place long enough. Or prop it up with something (maybe a book or bottle of honey!) 
4.  Once it's quite firm, scrape any excess resin off before it sets completely.

Hey presto, rejoined  handle, but still with a big piece missing. 

To fill in the missing pottery. I used Fimo. It's a soft modelling clay that bakes hard in the oven. There are some safety instructions for it's use that you can link to here. it comes in lots of different colours including black. I'd never used it before, so wasn't sure if it would work for this project. 
But I had a go. It was fun, just like using plasticine. I just took of a piece and rolled it into a sausage shape, working with it like clay, attaching it where the broken area had been. 

Once I was happy with it, I held my breath and baked it in the oven as per the instructions. No more than thirty minutes at 110c/230f, Then with bated breath I removed it from the oven. The good new is that yes the fimo section of the handle had baked hard and was in place. But the glued-on section had fallen off. 

But I soon stuck it back on again. I needed the process of sticking it on to begin with so that I had a means of modelling the new section to it. 

So my cute little crock pot is just as good as new.  Well not quite and I'll try not to use the handles too much.

Sadly my nose may take a little longer to repair.