Kong Zi - injured old Chinese passing

My godmother has a little something...

 

Brought with her from China. ... No, not a virus! :o And it isn't made of plastic either. ;) It is something nice. :) An ink drawing to be precise. One of those that come rolled up. One that was produced and bought by her almost half a century ago!

 

Unfortunately it is torn at its "predetermined breaking points". Where the rather heavy wooden bar and stiff stick meets the far less heavy and less stiff silk coated paper. :s Both parties only still clinging together with a little help from a friend called sticky tape. But it is clear to see: sticky tape's mind might continue to be willing :), only its force is fading. :( The responsibility for the drawings well-being being too much of a heavy burden for sticky. :s

 

"Look - you think you might be able to do something?!"

was the cautious question asked.

"Of course, sure!"

the quite uncautious VERY optimistic answer.

 

Ähem. ... Well I think. ... At least I hope... With a bit of luck... ?! Maybe? :s

Finally I DID participate - harumph - some odd 20 years ago (?! JESUS! How old am I again?!?) in an paper conservation seminar, did I not?!                                                                                                                                                  IT'LL BE FINE!!! :o :s ;)

  • Step 1: creating a workspace - check!
  • Step 2: photographic documentation; ink drawing, frontside / before intervention
  • ink drawing, backside / before intervention
  • Damages: sticky tape consolidation here,...
  • ...some stains there,...
  • ...a tear,...
  • ...creases too.
  • Same on the back.
  • Silk coating rubbed off,...
  • ..."watermarks" of unknown provenance,...
  • ...more sticky tape,...
  • ...creases again.
  • Step 3: mechanic dry surface cleaning - to some effect.
  • Step 4: washing the crepeline (Cheers Anu!) with which I intent to double the tears in the silk...
  • ...and laying it out flat and straight.
  • Step 5: I need sandbags, but have no time to make the sophisticated version. Zip-bags will have to do - and do so nicely! :)
  • Step 6: weighing the drawing down with them and under the influence of the humid air outdoors.
  • Step 7: meanwhile I prepare the patches of thin Japanese paper I will glue to the tears in the drawing from behind to close and stabilise them.
  • Step 8: two of those tears before, during and...
  • ...after the doubling.
  • The very same tears seen from the front.
  • On the lower end of the rolled drawing things really come apart since I took off the sticky tape! :s The hardwood bar with some blotches of the adhesive it was originally mounted with.
  • Not exactly delicate work. Small wonder it did not last a lifetime.
  • I stick a strip of thick Japanese paper under the entire tear.
  • Two strips actually, just because the sheet of Japanese paper I have to work with is not wide enough to make one that covers the whole stretch. :s
  • As long as it fixes the tear - what difference does it make!? I am satisfied.
  • Step 9: trying out which percentige of Lascaux glue-solution I need to make the crepeline stick to the silk and enable it to hold what needs to be held.
  • Step 10: coating the big piece of crepeline I will use. Have a good close look guys! There IS a gauze-like material on the foil there!
  • Step 11: I try to double the silk - but somehow it resist all my efforts. It drives me first mad then into despair. :(
  • Not knowing how else to do it - I swob the Lascaux with a standard glue. For it REALLY needs to stick!!!
  • Which it finally does then. Thanks a lot!
  • I had my doubts - but in the end it looks alright. ;)

BÖÖAAAHHHH

  • This is a...
  • ... camel's saddle foot stool.
  • The cushion.
  • Unfortunately has... problems.
  • The one or other hole for example, through which the more daring of the filling escape. Poorly "repaired" with double-sided adhesive tape that left dark marks in the leather.
  • Open seams, one enforcement patch lost, below it the red leather shredded.
  • The second enforcement patch on the opposite side "only" torn, but below the same damage to the red leather.
  • The saddle-like framework has problems of its own.
  • Leather strab in two.
  • Screws loose, nuts missing.
  • Metal aglets coming off the hinges.
  • Felt slippers decrepit.
  • First things first; out with the old filling.
  • Hoover the interior.
  • After that: copy the shape of the cushion to make a replica-one to go inside the original as an inlet. For conservational reasons. And to in futur keep the filling from falling out.
  • Because the fabric for the inlet is to thick I am forced to pre-sew it by hand. :s Very tiring - especially for my fingertips!
  • But in the end it's done.
  • Time to do something about the holes.
  • Meaning in this case; doubling the leather with as matching a fabric as I was able to find and gluing the layers together..
  • Doesn't look too bad, does it?! :)
  • Next I copy-paste patches for the shredded red leather parts.
  • Glued.
  • I close the opened seams.
  • Cut out a new enforcement patch, glue and stitch it (on)to the cushion.
  • Work on the cushion's underbelly finished.
  • Now I attack the rather ugly repair of the border on the front of the cushion.
  • Undo what had been done.
  • Make it better.
  • Time for ... the framework. Cleaning, tightening of the screws, fixing two nuts where two were lost.
  • Re-form the hinges and carefully hammer the metal aglets back into place.
  • Off with the old felt.
  • Wipe the feet. ;)
  • Put on new slippers.
  • Copy the shape from where the cushion comes to lay to make a board that from now on it will rest (in peace) upon, rather than being squeezed through between the existing two boards.
  • Granddad takes the little saddle-framework safely stored in his trailer on a tour through the woods.
  • To the surgery. :o
  • Where my brother cuts the support-board.
  • That I then dress in felt.
  • Tadaa! No more deformation by squeezing through somewhere, no wobbling around - the cushion lies at ease.
  • Last thing to do is filling and closing the inlet. I "drill" holes for my needle to go through later in advance.
  • The stuffing material - at least part of it (cleaned, sorted and torn into much smaller pieces than before) goes back in.
  • Final seam stitched.
  • DUNN!!! :)
  • Böööaaahhh!

Marcus Aurelius versus his horned throne

- PART 1 / "inheritance for beginners" -

The acquainted Caesar (seen left left) has been fighting a rather wearing inheritance: 

his forebear left him his throne (seen right left). 

 

[note.: Speaking of a chair here guys!]

 

Made of the real stuff - oak, as befits a throne. No rubbish, but solid ware. Meaning to say; can't bin it! :o 

 

Too good to be let to decompose in ones basement. Too "shabby" (alias old-fashioned) to stay upstairs with and in the living.

Somehow the current owner struggles to integrate the chair in the 21st-century-style-arrangements of his lodgings.

 

Philosophising about if furnishing the throne with a new gown might be of any help maybe...?!? - he calls on a professional. Yes, ME!

 

Very stupid idea of course. As I - NATURALLY! pff - have an opinion on the matter! And immediately quelques Visionen.

In his for(e)bearingness (or despair?!) he recruits me to help and work that throne with him nonetheless...

 

Not Ready, unsteady, gogogo! ;)

  • May I present; the throne!
  • With its (characteristic?!) spiky horns. :o
  • from behind
  • There is an ugly void to be found in one of the wooden compounds,
  • some scratches in the varnish...
  • ...and stains in the velvet cover.
  • But also a very state-of-the-art underfloorheating?! ;)
  • To check on the inner values of the chair (or hidden flaws maybe) the cover needs to come off.
  • The ordinary guy gets to work with the (I quote) "Ladies' tool"... :s
  • The professional me handles the ice pick.
  • stratigraphic sequence - uncovered
  • The edges of the cushion are reinforced with paper?! :o Never seen that before. Interesting!
  • The upholstery looks fine...
  • ...apart from a piece of foam. :(
  • After all those years under (though undoubtably friendly) siege that foam sticks to the bast fibres beneath. So I decide to not mess with it.
  • I retreat for the time being. It's time for the heir to whet his weapon of choice...
  • ...and skin the chair. As he "dislikes sanding". :o ... Urghhm... well, what can I say?! Ave Ceasar!

The futur occupier of the chair not only has a skinny task on hand but to occupy his head with too. He needs to think about what cloth he wants his chair to wear. :o

That's tough to do he says - and I understand for there is endless choice thanks to the uncountable products available online... :s

 

As there is a new green couch to move in with him one of these days (-> "soon") we wonder if choosing green fabric of some sort for the chair would be a clever thing to do. Maybe with "botanic" allure to also match the numerous nice potted plants in the room? Or would it be best to opt for a completely different colour/design to visually enhance the uniqueness of the object in question? ... hm.

 

I take pity on the quite lost-in-dense-fibre-mist king of his castle and try to help - by sending him links to sites he may get the real good stuff on! And by presenting him with a preselection:

Ceasar is far from amused - though not ungrateful. But he bewails to miss the forest for the trees. Claims he has problems with the visualisation.

So I create some kind of storyboard for him...

What's it gonna be?!

- to be continued -

MA (vs) HHT

- PART 2 / "Relax! Don't Do It..." -

- to be continued still -

ParaSOL & me

I am in a dilema;

I wish to "brown", but not to burn.

 

The garden offers either full exposure or the deepest shades of ... whatever plant you choose to lie next to. Meaning with the momentarily still moderate degrees centrigate I can either catch a cold or enjoy a melt-down, none of which I find it in me to fancy.

 

What's needed is a lace covered umbrella! That enables me to fry decently. 

 

Luckily for me there is the one or other hole(y) tablecloth to be found amongst the inherited goods of the family. That no-one actually makes use of. :o And my dad has a couple of sunshades stocked in his "shed" that he is willing to part with so I might use the departed's wire framework and stand. :)

  • The chosen knitted tablecloth is wonderful! :) Only its shade unable to hide the whole of me. :s
  • Besides it does not have the right shape - every other stick is left uncovered. :( I need to patch it up somehow.
  • Prototype 1.0: the knitting is not fine enough. But the patch itself works. I switch to smaller sized knitting needles.
  • all 4 patches done
  • I crochet them to the umbrella, as knitting the patches to it is technically impossible. And sewing risks to be too unflexible.
  • No hard but tedious work. :s
  • But finally one fine evening.. :) Unfortunately knitting has the tendency to "roll up" at the edges.
  • Which is why I do a line of crochet stitches all around the thingy;
  • ...on the right it's done already, but not yet on the left.
  • No good. :(
  • Much better! :)
  • Nevertheless: to weigh the edges down I decide to put a galloon of some sort on them. I do stock a couple to choose from... naturally. :s
  • A beaded one maybe? It has the right colour. Looks kinda cute...
  • Or one with a leaf and flower decor?! Matching the leaf-like pattern on the tablecloth.
  • With dents? Colour is right too.
  • I want the beaded galloon. Because of its colour and because it feels quite like a sign from above that it has EXACTLY (!) the lenght needed to go round the edge! :)
  • This time I do sew it to the crochet line on the knitting as technically it is the only way to go to fix it lying straight "on top" of the patches.
  • All that is needed now is for the sunshine to come! :)

MA (vs) HHT

- PART 3 / "On And On And On" -

MA (vs) HHT

- Part 4 / "fabric(ated) coma" -

Marcus Aurelius is so stuffed and fed up with shaving(s) - he is close to self-ignition! To appease the late Latin I take him along to a fabric store...

[Our fabric-dealing middle man unfortunately has time issues. The ordered stuff from far away keeps being exactly that: far away... :s]

 

So Ceasar (& his hired sidekick) takes things in his own hands. Veni, vedi and found a couple of "pleasing to the eye and touch"-fabrics, has them wrapped up by the friendly saleswoman ... and speeds back home with his bounty (& sidekick, yes) to hold a fitting sitting! 

There are of course those fabrics one had ordered and should come forth to us in the end. :s

Only we are rather fixed on the godess fabric on top of a golden seat now - for so many super fine reasons! The godess in the corner of the room Caesar is doing his yoga and meditation in; is simply right! The elegant golden fabric not only looks wonderful but befits a throne. And the green colour of the godess is a good match for the sofa to be baught AND the many potted plans. It feels "meant to be" - so be it then (damn)!

 

And really ... I already have a little idea what one could do with all the fabric samples I did not discourage Caesar to buy. :)

 

But first of all he needs to finish his work on the frame! So ther is still plenty of time to take a nap or two over the decision that one is to make. 

One bunny's luck ... is the other's misfortune

 

 

 

ALBERT thinks to himself: "Nuts - all of them!" & rather concentrates on eating his 5 a day...

MA (vs) HHT

- PART 5 / "lubrication" -

 

Steve has gone ... 

 

to live in another

 

place!

 

 

:)