Riding the wind of rebirth

Chapter 1614 Improvement

Even if this test shows that the repair paper will blur, the solution is not complicated. The repair paper only needs to be treated with glue and alum, and repeated several times until the paper properties of the repair paper reach similar properties to the paper to be repaired.

After the preparation work is done, it is time to formulate a repair plan.

The simplest restoration plan is of course to do as Zhou Zhi had done before, that is, to keep only the core of the painting and replace all the rest with new ones. This is of course the most direct, complete and effective restoration method.

However, this kind of restoration method is usually used when the calligraphy or painting has already had major problems, or in human terms, it is "incorrigible." For these two rubbings that were treasured by our predecessors, although there are some problems, it is far from that level.

Therefore, the two volumes of rubbings are "minor illnesses", but mounting calligraphy and paintings is not a real cure. In fact, "treating" such minor illnesses is much more complicated than a "major blood transfusion".

The final restoration plan was based on a comprehensive analysis of the overall status of "The Inscription on the Buried Crane" and "Thousand Character Classic", the locations of damage, and restoration requirements. It took "restoring the old as it was" and "minimum intervention" as the restoration principles, and based on traditional restoration techniques, only partial repairs were carried out on the damaged areas of the two volumes.

The worm-eaten holes are repaired by hand; the broken and brittle parts of the top, bottom, folds and other parts are glued and reinforced with corresponding leather paper. The repair is carried out along the first repair area by peeling it off a second time. The old patching paper is used as much as possible. If it doesn’t work, it is replaced with new paper. Repairs are carried out with starch water, and various overlaps are finely processed. Only moderate repairs are made under the existing conditions, and only the current damaged parts are repaired, rather than comprehensive and advanced repairs.

This is even more difficult. Anyone who has seen the scene in Dream of the Red Chamber where Qingwen mends the bird fur coat knows that mending is a more difficult craft than cutting.

The most important point is that when repairing, we should leave enough room for the next repair by future generations, just like the masters did last time.

After the plan is approved by An Siyuan, the restoration work can officially begin.

The first thing is to create a file. For every damaged area that needs to be repaired, photos must be taken to record clear and comprehensive details of the damage before repair. At the same time, relevant matters about the repair here must be recorded, including the location of the damage in the rubbing, thickness, color card reading, pH value, surrounding conditions, repair plan, required spare materials, etc.

After everything is recorded and the repair details of each damage are determined, the work begins to be dusted and disinfected.

Here Zhouzhi discovered some new restoration equipment, such as a dust collector for dust removal.

The dust collector uses ultrasonic equipment of a specific frequency to remove dust from the work to be repaired, removing the dust accumulated on the paper surface. The work is then placed in a fume hood, adjusted to an appropriate suction force, and cleaned with a soft brush.

The dust swept down will be sucked into the dust bag through the suction device above the cabinet top. This device is something Zhou Zhi has never seen before.

The next step is to select the appropriate bamboo paper and parchment paper, and repair and reinforce the insect holes, fractures and brittle parts of the damaged book leaves. Since bamboo paper is yellow with a slight white color and parchment paper is nearly white, the color of these two types of paper is quite different from the original, so the selected repair paper needs to be appropriately dyed to achieve a harmonious and natural effect with the original book leaves.

Zhouzhi usually uses various Chinese medicinal materials for color matching, but for these two rubbings, it is enough to choose the black tea bags commonly drunk by Westerners.

Take an appropriate amount of black tea and add water to boil. At the same time, use a small clean paper to test the color. If the color is dark, add water appropriately. Otherwise, add a little black tea appropriately. Repeat the test several times until the color is close to the original paper color. The tea is ready.

The paper is put into a water tank for dyeing for thirty minutes. Then the paper is peeled off page by page, lifted up and dried until it is seven-tenths dry. Then it is sprayed with water to moisten it again, pressed flat, and compared with the image of the area to be repaired. It can only be used when the color of the dyed bamboo paper and parchment paper is indistinguishable from that of the paper to be repaired with the naked eye.

The damaged holes of "The Inscription on the Buried Crane" are mainly concentrated on the top and bottom. Open the rubbing, face down, and place it on a cold light source transparent workbench covered with fiber paper in advance. Repair the damaged holes in the order of "first the middle and then the two sides" and "first repair the big ones and then the small ones". Use a brush to dip in starch water and apply it around the holes. Use the prepared repair paper, align the paper texture, and stick it flat on the hole. Press it slightly, and cover it with absorbent paper to absorb excess water and residual starch.

Then use tweezers to tear off the excess paper according to the wet print of the paste, and at the same time, carefully handle the overlap. Considering that the physical properties of the paper around the hole have declined, in order to better protect the rubbing, it is necessary to appropriately expand the width of the overlap when processing the overlap, depending on the actual situation, generally controlled at 2.0-2.5 mm, to appropriately increase the tension around the hole.

As for the reinforcement of broken and brittle parts, due to the long-term external force, the folds have curled, broken, and burred. Many parts of the footing have darker brittle marks.

Through visual observation, it can be found that there should have been cracks in these parts before the rubbing, and they have been carefully repaired. For these parts, the way to deal with the cracks is to glue the leather paper strips torn in advance. The gluing method is to align the gap first, leaving a slight gap between the two single leaves, apply starch water from top to bottom, stick the leather paper strips to the book edge, cover with absorbent paper, absorb moisture, press slightly, and stick tightly. Also apply starch water to the brittle parts of the base, and also use leather paper strips to flatten them, press tightly, and tear off the excess paper edge as needed.

It should be noted that handmade paper actually has a front and a back side. That is, after the bamboo mat is scooped up from the paper pulp water, there are subtle differences in fiber density and organization between the side that sticks to the bamboo mat and the side that faces the air.

In addition, due to the presence of fine bamboo fibers on the bamboo curtain, the density of the paper will also be distributed sparsely and alternately. Therefore, when repairing, you must also pay attention to these details and align the density, front and back, and direction with the original paper.

During the restoration process, Zhou Zhi also discovered that although the previous restorers had superb skills, they had limited choices for patching paper. Therefore, the thickness of the patching paper used was greater than the original paper, and the repair seams were probably too wide due to limited eyesight.

These two situations will cause the restored rubbing pages to be uneven, especially after being eaten by insects, wrinkles similar to walnut patterns will grow around the holes.

Many of the repaired parts look normal, but feel hard to the touch, causing the top and bottom of the entire book to be slightly thicker than other parts.

After discovering this new situation, Zhou Zhi decided to improve the potential problems in the original repair.