Restoring cultural relics: Starting with the crying Tang Dynasty figurines

The ink has faded considerably, but the brushwork remains, the lines are strong and vigorous, definitely in the style of the Southern Song Dynasty!

Wormholes are mainly concentrated in the lower half of the image; the upper half is somewhat better.

The largest hole is in the trunk, which has gnawed half of the tree. To repair it, you first need to sort out the loose threads around the hole, align them one by one, and then use a patch to support the base.

The person in the picture is in an even worse situation!

The face was eaten away by insects; there was a hole where the nose was, and a small hole where the right eye was, making it look like there were two holes on the face.

The clothing patterns are complete, the lines are very smooth, and you can tell it's a meticulous painting.

The flower and bird piece is in relatively better condition; the wormhole is in the corner and doesn't damage the main body. A bird is perched on a branch, its feathers drawn with a fine brush, each one still clearly visible today.

Su Yuan put the magnifying glass away, and Qian Weidong hurriedly asked:

"How's it going, Xiao Su? Can you fix it?"

"able."

The subsequent procedures took another hour or so, including signing, stamping, and handing over the checklist.

Qian Weidong went to get the car, while Su Yuan and Miss Wang carefully packed the four scrolls of paintings into a specially made painting box, pushed them out on a trolley, and then loaded them into the van.

The painting box filled the entire back row. On the way back, Su Yuan leaned against the window with his eyes closed.

Those paintings were on my mind.

I memorized the location, size, and shape of the wormhole. For the character's face, the two holes were right on the facial features, so when filling them in, I had to first lay out the base before adding the details.

Adding strokes cannot be done haphazardly; one must find a basis and complete the work according to the brushstrokes of the original painting!

The most difficult part is the silk color.

The color of old silk is formed naturally over hundreds of years. Newly repaired silk is too white, so it needs to be colored to age it and match the original painting.

You can almost tell when the colors are being adjusted.

After thinking it over, Su Yuan opened his eyes and looked out the window. The car had already left the provincial capital, and there were lush green wheat fields on both sides.

Qian Weidong turned on the radio, which was playing a storytelling performance about Yue Fei. Su Yuan listened for a few sentences and then closed his eyes to think about how to repair the paintings.

It was already past 2 PM when I got back to the office!

Qian Weidong parked the car at the entrance, Su Yuan got out, and together with Qian Weidong carefully carried the painting box out of the car, placed it on a trolley, and pushed it into the hall.

Liu Jun wanted to step forward to help, but Su Yuan was afraid that he would hurt the painting if he touched it carelessly. Qian Weidong waved his hand, telling Liu Jun not to come over.

Chen Xiaohe went out, and the two of them slowly moved all the paintings to the worktable in the second-floor warehouse.

The rest was left to Su Yuan's care. Qian Weidong said goodbye and left.

Su Yuan closed the door but didn't rush to do anything.

He first went through all four scrolls from beginning to end, reviewing the approximate number, location, and size of the wormholes in his mind.

The landscape painting is the largest, with the painting itself measuring approximately 1.2 meters in length and 40 centimeters in width.

There were more than forty wormholes of varying sizes, the largest being the trunk, about the size of a fingernail. Besides the trunk being gnawed in half, the ink lines and silk threads were also broken, and a section of it had collapsed.

There were also several holes in the nearby rocks, as small as the tip of a needle.

The one for the person is the smallest, only the size of two palms!

There are two holes where the face is, and a few more in the clothes, but luckily they are all in the corners and don't get in the way.

The painting depicts a lady standing sideways, holding a round fan in her hand, the pattern on the fan surface clearly showing peonies.

The flower and bird piece was the best preserved; the wormholes were on the top and bottom edges, and the main body was undamaged.

The painting depicts a bird under a hibiscus flower. The bird's body is covered with ochre as a base, and then a layer of white powder is applied on top. The layers of the feathers are still preserved!

The hibiscus flowers are outlined in pink, and the stamens are dotted with gamboge. The colors have faded considerably, but the brushwork is still there.

There is also a smaller landscape painting, the painting itself is about 80 centimeters long.

The wormholes in this painting are mainly concentrated in the upper right corner of the sky, while the rocks and trees in the lower half of the painting are basically intact!

The piece of silk in the upper right corner is brittle and needs to be reinforced first.

Su Yuan took out the repair material from the toolbox and began the repair. He didn't want to delay at all. The repair material had to be old silk, and the color had to be close to the original painting.

He pulled out a piece of old silk from his toolbox. It was something they had collected from elsewhere; it was old enough to last for years, and its color was yellowish and brownish.

I compared the silk to the painting and saw that the color was a shade worse, so it needed to be dyed again.

Su Yuan went to the pool, filled a bowl with half a bowl of warm water, added a few drops of the prepared dark soy sauce, and a little ink, then stirred it well.

I dipped a small brush into the prepared coloring liquid and tried it on the silk. After it dried, the color looked a bit darker, but it was still not quite right.

I added two drops of dark soy sauce, stirred it well, and tried again. This time it was almost right!

Su Yuan directly soaked the whole piece of silk in the bowl, waiting for it to absorb the color. After soaking for about five minutes, he took it out, used a dry cloth to absorb the excess water, and laid it out on one side of the table to dry.

Next comes the bottoming out.

The person in the picture is in the most urgent situation; the two holes on their face can't be repaired without a proper fix!

Su Yuan selected a thin piece of kraft paper, trimmed it to be slightly larger than the wormhole, applied some thin paste, and then stuck it to the hole from the back.

When pasting, it must not be crooked; the texture of the paper must be aligned with the direction of the silk threads.

He used tweezers to hold the parchment paper, aligned it, pressed it down gently, and then pressed it firmly with his fingers.

Too much paste will bleed onto the front and cover the image. Too little paste won't adhere properly either!

After pasting it up, he waited for it to dry, and Su Yuan took the opportunity to look at the flower and bird painting.

The wormhole on the edge is easy to fix; just patch it with a patching cloth.

He picked out a piece of silk that was the closest in color to the hole, cut it into small pieces, applied paste to it, and stuck it to the hole from the back.

I then applied five or six small patches, the largest one being the bottom left corner, about the size of a fingernail. I cut the patch into a square, leaving a two-millimeter border on each side, and pressed it firmly after applying it!

After pasting it on, turn it over to look at the front. The color of the patch is a bit darker than the original painting. I have to wait for it to dry before I can re-mix the color.

The paste on the figure painting had dried.

Su Yuan flipped it over to look at the front. The paper was pasted quite smoothly, without any visible wrinkles. The tattered silk threads at the hole were held in place by the paper and no longer sagged.

Next, let's start patching this hole!

Use small scissors to trim the loose threads around the hole and cut off any protruding frayed edges.

Cut a piece of silk slightly larger than the hole, apply paste to it, and stick it onto the kraft paper to cover the hole.

When applying the fabric, make sure to align it with the original design's texture, and the direction of the silk threads must also be correct.

That fixes the nose and eyes!

Su Yuan pressed it with his finger; it was firmly attached. Then he turned it over and saw that there was still a thin gap between the patch and the original painting, which needed to be filled.

He mixed some paste, then used a small brush to apply it around the seam, and that was it.

After the four holes in the painting were patched up, the face of the figure was finally complete!

Although the color of the patching silk hadn't been aged yet, the two patches were still quite noticeable, but the positions of the facial features were no longer empty.

Su Yuan took a step back and looked again.

The lady's face was still mottled, like two plasters stuck to her face. However, the outline was complete; now it was just a matter of touch-ups and aging.

He didn't rush to add more strokes!

Su Yuan moved the figure painting aside and took out the larger landscape painting.

The big hole in the tree trunk.

Su Yuan first used kraft paper to support the bottom from the back, stabilizing the loose threads around the hole!

After the paste dried, a thick piece of old silk was selected as the patch, and cut into an oval shape, slightly larger than the hole.

Apply paste and stick it on, pressing it firmly from the front...