Therapy for having no nuts
 

This solution helped me overcome having no parrinarium nuts. These clubs from Papua and the Islands of the Bismarck archipelago seem to always come to collectors with the stone head unsecured. I have seen them complete in museums. I have been unhappy with my two example having loose heads for a long time. For me a big part of the pleasure of clubs is handling them. The loose head spoiled this and jarred somewhat visually. I am not 100% sure that the parrinarium nut putty was the only material used as an adhesive on this form of club. I have chosen to reconstruct with an air hardening modeling clay and use the same decorative materials that were used originally, red crab's eye seeds and Nassa shells. I think in the real situation a person would decorate their club as they wanted too, so who can say that it would not be as I have done. Sourcing materials the internet {ebay} has made this sort of task so easy when you think of the past. It was not just a matter of sicking the decoration into soft clay. The work has to be molded and the clay burnished as it dries. I used an electric heater. I would imagine pretty much the same process with the nut putty in tropical heat. I also used some musalage glue and artist medium to lessen the dry clay surface to give a slight shean like the nut surface. In the end it is as reversible as the nut putty. Have I been a tasteless vandal? I hope not. Is it acceptable? I think so. Just because it is a humble artwork rather than a reconstructed historic monument or building should still have credence.

Nice Job
 

Hi Tim,
I am no collector of clubs but from what I see here, the restoration looks great!
Well done!
Having done restoration on old guns from time to time, I think that making an item "look right" is the key....certainly better than leaving it in an obviously broken state.
Stu

Illustration from "club types of nuclear Polynesia, William Churchill, the Carnegie institution of Washington 1917" clubs Pennsylvania University Museum.
Nos- 17, 18.