Poster Mountain

Last month we took a hiatus from the blog because we were so busy with a wide range of projects and I did promise that I would put up some of those projects. The post this week is about a late 19 th or early 20 th century Japanese screen. The client brought it in with a host of problems including the fact that the two end panels were completely separated from the other four, the silk brocade that was around the border was rotting and there were several holes punched through the screen. We did not begin documenting this until after we had reattached the end panels. Trying to cover this in chronological order is proving difficult, so bear with me if I skip around a little. One of the most amazing things about this screen was that it was made completely from wood and paper without any nails. They did this using an interlocking grid system for the internal structure. The panels and the hinges were made from layers of paper glued together.  Meli...

Alright, folks, this is it, the last part of this series of posts. When you last saw the map it was still wet and had just been mounted directly to canvas. Once it had dried for several days we removed the hollytex facing. Its a relatively simple process of slowly pulling the hollytex back away from the paper, but it can be a little tense as the idea floats through your head that with one swift jerk you could potentially tear something. Fortunately we didn't have that issue and the hollytex came off cleanly, leaving behind a newly linen backed map. Pictured: The last time John took a facing off there was a lot of static cling and it actually shocked John, so I was understandably nervous about being shocked with this one. Pictured: No shocks though! Just hollytex gently coming off the map! Pictured: John liked this picture not only because of the map, but also all the projects going on in the background. The piece at the very back is from the late 19th cen...

We finished yesterday with the map drying face down on the melamine board. It dried over night and the next morning was ready to be removed from the board. To remove it from the board we insert long, thin and very sharp spatulas between the hollytex and the board. This particular piece made a nerve wracking crackling sound around the edges. Pictured: Here is the map, face down, before we have done anything to it. you can see next to it the two spatulas we use to remove things from the board. Pictured: Here is one of the edges that we worked so hard to save! Pictured: I am slipping the smaller spatula underneath the hollytex. The goal is to keep it flat and move it forward all at the same time.  John even got a short video! The two large cracks are Robin stapling canvas to the frames, the smaller crackling noises are from the paper as the hollytex separates from the board. With most of the pieces that we temporarily mount on hollytex, the spatulas are long enou...

When we left off yesterday the map had been mounted face down with a hollytex facing and was in the process of drying enough for us to remove the old linen backing on it. Pictured: Ever seen really calm water where you know something with really big teeth is lurking just under the surface? Same feeling here. Underneath this flat surface of linen is paper that wants to fall apart. We do a facing on the pieces that have backings that need to be removed and its always an experiment to find the right time when the piece has dried enough to hold it to the hollytex and the board, but still damp enough to be able to peel off the old backing.  John made a small incision in the middle of the linen for us to begin pulling it off the map. The nice thing about this old linen was that it was easy to pull it into strips that came off easily. Pictured: We made a small cut in the center from which we could start peeling back the linen. Pictured: Here you can see that as we pull b...