Restoration Workshop

Autumn has suddenly come and I started to take a restoration workshop; I found a crack in a painting that I finished just three years ago. Gee...
But my optimism took it a good opportunity to learn restoration/conservation skills which I have been interested in for a long time.


Although knowing that the restoration is not easy to learn and its skill is of the professionals which needs substantial time and effort, I decided to acquire the skill for my own sake at least to the degree to be able to fix minor problems which may happen within several years after finishing painting; I thought it is one of the painter's responsibilities.

There are just a few such workshops in Japan, but luckily, I found a very good one run by a professional restorer just 30 min. from my house.

In this class, rabbit skin glue is used for fixing the crack and strengthen the canvas around it.

rabbit skin glue (left) and ox skin glue (right)
ウサギの膠と牛の膠

Double boiler for dissolving rabbit skin glue. Keep it 40-60C
湯煎で兎膠を溶かす。40度から60度に保つ

Paint with the dissolved rabbit skin glue to penetrate into the cracked area.
溶かした兎膠をヒビの入った場所にしみ込ませる

Continued....(maybe)

秋が突然やってきました。
数年前に描いた作品に小さなひび割れを見つけてしまいました。。。
でも楽観的に考えると、長年興味を持っていた修復技術を学ぶ良いチャンスです。

もちろん修復は簡単に学べるモノではなく、相当な時間を要するプロの技術だと分かっているのですが、 自分のために学んでみたい。少なくとも自分の作品の軽微な問題を解決する技術を身につけたいと思いました。（完成後数年以内の問題はやはり作者の責任だと思うのです。）

そんな講座は日本では数少ないのですが、家からわずか30分の所に、修復の専門家が運営する教室を見つけました。

ここでは、ひび割れを固定し、周辺のキャンバスを強化するために兎膠を使用しています。

（続く。。。。かも）