Filling the Void…

Having repaired and stabilized the print from the back, it is now time to fill the losses from the front to make them less visually distracting.

Previously, the losses were filled from the back with a simple Japanese tissue repair to provide a base for the fill:

Repaired loss before filling

From here, the print was placed on the light table and a piece of Mylar was laid over the loss. The Mylar acts as a protective layer over the print. The toned archival paper is laid over the loss and weighted down so it won’t move:

Fill paper placed over the loss

The exact outline of the loss is traced onto the archival fill paper lightly with pencil:

Tracing the outline

The fill is then cut out with surgical scissors and checked that it fits:

Checking the shape of the fill

The repair tissue is wet out with a thin paste solution to reactivate the remoistenable adhesive layer, and to add a bit more strength to the adhesive to hold the stiffer archival paper in place:

Pasting out the repair

Once the fill is in place it is allowed to dry between Reemay and blotters under weights.

Then the pencil lines are erased from the repair:

Fill with pencil lines

Fill with pencil lines erased

And the fill paper trimmed to the edge of the item:

Fill paper after trimming

This was the final step in the treatment process. Now all the item needs is after treatment photography and to be returned to storage. See the before and after versions next time…..