Opening post. and a print conservation project

Welcome to my work blog!  I'll be using this to share and discuss conservation and bookbinding projects and thoughts about the field.  I'm always happy to talk shop, so please ask me questions, in comments or by email.

My most recent conservation project came to me via craigslist (with the help of an alert friend).  The client had bought a serigraph print in acrylics on paper, and it was bent in the mail.  A crease ran from top to bottom across the image, and the paint layer cracked along the crease.  You can see a detail of the damage at the right.  In person, the white showing where the paint was cracked was more jarring. 

I first re-flattened the print by lightly misting the reverse with water to relax the paper and then drying it under weight.  Once that was done, I mixed watercolors to match the colors of the print, testing them on a paper of similar color and texture.  When I was satisfied with the color matches, I used a fine sable brush to dot the watercolor into the cracked areas until the white was no longer visible.  After the paint dried, I inspected the results and touched it up slightly.  When it was done, I showed it to my husband to see whether the damage and infill were obvious to fresh eyes; he wasn't sure until I pointed out where it was.

On the left is a detail of the print after treatment; the treated area is discernible on close examination (more so in person than in the photo), but it's no longer obvious and visually distracting.  This was a fairly simple and brief project, but very satisfying.