Filling in the Gaps
by Rebecca Pavitt
Conservator, Pacific Conservators
Vancouver, BC
Pricking outline of insert |
IT OFTEN HAPPENS that art and documents on paper come into the lab missing a few pieces. Broken corners, lost fragments, punctures, gouges...any number of mishaps can result in losses that are visually disturbing, and may destabilize the paper support.
There are three basic methods of dealing with these problems. The first is simple mending. Small losses, as are commonly found along fold lines or edges, can simply be bridged or reinforced on the reverse with Japanese paper and an archival quality adhesive such as wheat starch paste or methylcellulose. The Japanese papers used in conservation, (often mistakenly called “rice paper”) are made from the long fibred kozo plant. These long fibres give even very thin papers or tissues great strength, and allow repairs to be unobtrusive. Wheat starch and methylcellulose pastes are stable, reversible adhesives with a well-studied history of use in conservation.
Setting insert in place
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Paper losses can also be filled with paper pulp. Paper scraps and distilled water are pulped in a blender and the slurry is used to fill the area of loss. The application technique can be as simple as the judicious use of tweezers and a piece of blotting paper or as complex as the computerized leaf-casting system used by many book conservators. After drying, the fill can be toned or in-painted with watercolour to blend with surrounding areas.
The last method – paper inserts – is my personal favourite for larger losses. Here a paper of similar tone, texture and weight is cut to shape and fit inside the loss. My method is to lay the fill paper under the loss, prick the outline onto the fill paper with a thin needle (careful not to puncture the original!), cut the fill with a beveled edge, and paste into place with a Japanese paper underlay. The fill can then be toned and in-painted to match surrounding areas.
Insert toned with paint
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What is the most unusual fill I ever made? Last year a client brought in some lovely old prints her father had left her. One of these was the Battle of the Nile, a very finely detailed etching, with major areas of loss. Neither her budget nor, I suspect, my in-painting skills, could accommodate any of the fill techniques described above. With her permission, I took the print to my wonderful neighbourhood printer, who very patiently worked to make the best laser copies of the piece that he could. (They were not, I hasten to add, anywhere near the fine quality of the original!) I could however, use the copies to cut and match the areas of loss in the print, fine tuning the matches with watercolour detailing. The result, while not up to the standards of a connoisseur, was within budget and allowed her to enjoy a print that would otherwise have been too damaged for display.
For more information visit the FACTS (Fine Art Care and Treatment Standards) website at www.artfacts.org.
Last issue: Do-it-yourself preventative art care.
Next issue: Rips, tears and holes.
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