Book Conservation: Week 2

Tonight we learned how to mend tears in paper. It was totally freaky and I was scared out of my mind to try it. But it's really cool because using tissue (not the nasal kind, but the mending kind) actually works! I had to fix this giant rip in the paper. It was my first attempt; I think it turned out pretty good. If I hate it, rubbing alcohol will take it right off. (This is why conservators don't use PVA because PVA is not reversible.)

And then I tried the Japanese paper. We got two kinds; a really thin kind and a slightly thicker kind. See?

The adhesive that seems to work best is wheat paste, which you have to mix up from powder and ends up looking like jello before you dilute it with water. How much dilution? Well, that depends on the thickness of the paper you're mending and the paper you're using to fix the torn paper, and you also have to consider the color of the paper (most Japanese paper tends to be unbleached with a natural color). But the good news is, if you don't like how it turns out, just add water and the Japanese paper comes right off.

Observe photos below: tear before mending, tear during drying, tear after drying (and before trimming the edge).

I'm still deciding if I like this look and if I should use thicker wheat paste, thicker Japanese paper, etc.

We watched this really old movie about how Japanese paper is made. It can take months to finish the process, depending on how much paper is made. Do you want to know why Japanese paper costs so much? Well, it's made from a plant that has to be steamed, have its bark peeled off, soaked in water overnight, mixed with soda ash, boiled, left overnight again, washed out to remove chemicals, left in water exposed to sunlight, cleansed again, observed for bark particles in water, observed for bark particles out of water, beaten to loose fibers, soaked in water to break up fibers again, flattened into paper, pressed, pressed again, dried, and hand cut into sizes. There you go.

And yes. I am the only person in the class who is taking pictures to document this workshop. Do I care? No.