Crystal & China Repair

Mary Lou (a/k/a "the Fixer") was featured on WGN News! You can WATCH THE VIDEO HERE or scroll down.

Don't throw away your cracked or chipped crystal stemware, vases, or bowls. Our visiting repair expert can make them like new again. Same with your broken china dinnerware and porcelain figurines. That includes collectibles like Hummels, Lladros, and Swarovski.

For 40 years, Mary Lou Gates has been restoring our customers' treasures. She turned her experimentation with her father's lapidary machinery at his antiques shop into a lifelong career, and The Little Traveler is proud to have played a role for four decades.

Bring in your chipped, broken, or cracked treasures and let Mary Lou work her magic. Glass can't be added to or re-fired, so Mary Lou's process removes chips by grinding and buffing. Her bonding process on broken crystal, china, and porcelain ensures the item will stay intact after repairs, even with water washing.

Free Estimates. Your items will be brought back to Mary Lou's repair shop and then returned to The Little Traveler for pick up at a later date.

Services Include

• Chip removal. It will be virtually impossible to detect where the repairs were done. 
• Re-beveling
• Glass polishing
• Reshaping of spouts on pitchers
• Reattachment of glass stems and bases
• China and porcelain repair

During this event, you can find Mary Lou in our Gift Gallery (a/k/a the candle room). If you can't make it in on this date, you can drop off your items in advance. Inquire in the Gift Gallery. 

About Mary Lou Gates

Mary Lou Gates started learning crystal repair 52 years ago. As she describes it, "I created a monster and didn't know it was happening."

Her parents owned an antique shop, and her father had lapidary machinery that Mary Lou started playing around with. After a bit of trial and error, she taught herself how to buff out scratches and make other repairs. Word spread around her hometown of Joliet that Mary Lou could repair crystal and other fragile heirlooms, and before she knew it, she had customers.  

She continued to hone her craft, applying her skills to crystal, china, and porcelain. She was invited to the Kohler Antique Show in Wisconsin to do repairs and became a regular there. At one of those shows, an antique buyer for Kohler who also had a connection to The Little Traveler's antique department suggested that Mary Lou should offer her services at the Geneva shop. Thus began a 40-year partnership! 

Just as it is now, Mary Lou would visit The Little Traveler every three months to repair broken items for the store's clientele. The service proved so popular that The Little Traveler became a drop-off point for customers to leave their items any time at their convenience. Mary Lou brings the broken items back to her repair shop, makes repairs, and then returns them to the store for pick up—it's a service that continues to this day.  

Mary Lou continued offering her service at various antique shows, but after the shows closed because of COVID, she hasn't returned. She hasn't needed to. Her local customers come to The Little Traveler, and customers from all around the country ship their pieces directly to her. Her reputation for fine craftsmanship earned her that kind of loyalty—Mary Lou doesn't have to do any advertising. 

Offering her services through The Little Traveler isn't the only partnership Mary Lou started 40 years ago. That's also when she married her husband, Bob Gates. Mary Lou taught him the tricks of the trade, and longtime customers of the Traveler will remember when Bob used to set up all the equipment to do repairs at the store. These days, Mary Lou doesn't drag the whole set-up along and instead brings all items back to her workshop. 

Mary Lou restores all kinds of treasures. She's seen her fair share of broken Swarovski snowflake ornaments that have fallen off trees or window displays. She's also rejoined many wine glasses with their bases and restored busted crystal candlesticks to their former glory. She can even mend porcelain doll faces and restore china plates after the owners botch an attempt at fixing them with glue. After 40 years of repairs at The Little Traveler, people still tell her, "I didn't know you could do that!"   

Mary Lou has also served The Little Traveler customers by recommending other repair experts over the years. Today, you can thank her for Julie the Chair Caning expert and Larry the "lamp guy."