I was given a tricky job of repairing a badly torn Chines paper screen which had large gouges taken out of it whilst in storage. The tears were up to 5x 6 inches in places and the torn paper was strongly crumpled. The paintings were beautiful watercolours. However the paper was thick and heavy, like wallpaper and badly stained and browning. Also there was no access to the back so the repairs had to be made good from the front only.
In the circumstances the repairs are pretty good. There were gaps caused in the paper going back to position which I chose to gesso over the brown paper. I then matched slowly the painted details with watercolours although it was impossible to get a flawless match because of the varying papers. The client was pleased as the screen was both functional and only on close inspection could the repairs be seen. Certainly much better than its sad sorry state when it arrived!
