Charles Foster has been restoring porcelain and china collectibles and objects d'art for 34 years. He was approached by a client who excavates dinosaur remains. The client needed missing pieces restored to several Tyrannosaurus Rex teeth. He told Foster that these restored teeth would sell for several thousand dollars each and that he could not find anyone with the expertise to perform the dinosaur dentistry. Foster agreed to take on the job and developed a state of the art process using an ultra-violet curable composite similar to what dentists use on human teeth. Now with 40 T-rex teeth projects completed, along with thousands of porcelain, china and glass restorations Foster has finished for his happy clients, he is faced with a new challenge. Where does someone go to learn how to professionally restore a 2000-year-old, paper-thin Roman glass vase or grandma's broken china teapot spout?

Foster said that he is concerned about the shortage of restoration artists in the U.S. He is meeting the shortage challenge by conducting a weeklong porcelain and china restoration course scheduled to begin December 12th at his Austin, Texas, studio where he will share his private restoration techniques with a handful of fortunate students from around the U.S. The course is tailored towards helping individuals who have no background in restoration to achieve the intermediate level of skill needed to begin a restoration business. During the 34 years he has been restoring dozens of varied compositions in collectibles, he has developed vastly more efficient methods for bonding and restoration, cutting work time by half in most cases. Students who are taught by this master will have an opportunity to become part of a new restorer's referral network, which will be available to clients on his web site. Foster said "I have a one year backlog of projects, and 50% of the work I perform is for people who only want their pieces simply glued back together. The other 50% are valuable pieces that need invisible restoration and 20% of my overall projects are items sent to me from clients living in large metropolitan areas from around the U.S.". The fact that new clients go to the trouble of sending their items from out of state for repair is one of the key indicators that there is a shortage of restoration artists.

Course reservations can be made beginning October 18, 2005. If you would like to participate in the course or need more information about the course or services please visit http://www.brokentreasure.com or call 512-848-8374.