Repair a crack
Linen is stronger than cotton, and it stretches less than cotton. So a crack in linen i can restore better and often more beautiful than a crack in cotton.
How do i repair a crack?
- If a crack occurs in a painting canvas, then i begin to “flatten” the crack . If after this process, the fibers come back together, i put small reversible stickers on the front. Sometimes we choose “facings”: thin paper strips i glue with starch, temporarily, on the front (“over the crack”). Then i glue back on the back of thin strips of Japanese paper to recycle the crack.
- Now the front of the visible crack (“the wound”) is filled with a special cloth paste on a chalk / acrylic basis. Sometimes i print the (replica) of the surface relief or the linen structure.
- After drying, the lacquer is painted with retouching paint (pigments in a plastic solution) that is reversible. Please note: the painting must be cleaned first of surface contamination, to retouch the original colors around the crack!
