The Village shop is complete! 27cmX27cm (Well, almost – just the postbox to get some detail, but I needed to look at it again). The little Westie’s name is Delphi and she goes there for a walk every day and sometimes twice a day with her elderly master and he enjoys a beer in the sunshine while she waits patiently.
Here is a close-up of the corrected spelling mistake. A patch is the most drastic way to correct mistakes, but it also shows evidence of hand. (You’d never need to do this with vellum, because vellum is quite easy to erase. And maybe I must chat about how to correct spelling mistakes on 100% cotton paper).
Stick the new piece on top of the mistake in exactly the right spot. Using a super-sharp scalpel, cut through both sheets of paper – top layer and bottom layer. Try to cut where a shadow won’t show, in this case, on the edge of the letters, right next to the H and around the D (theoretically). Then remove the top shape and the bottom shape will fit perfectly because it was cut at the same time. Glue some fine repair paper to the back using methyll cellulose glue. This is not as good as it was planned because I didn’t glue it immediately but tidied up first etc and when I looked again I had lost my new patch. 1cmx4mm. Then I did it another 4 times to get it right and had to re-cut the hole blah blah blah. It also shows as a patch more on the photo than in real life.
The first time I had to do this was when I lived in Cape Town. My newly completed citation on handmade paper was on my desk in my double garage sized studio in Cape Town. My teenagers all had complete access for their own art, the computer, the large table for ping-pong etc. Anyway, my then 15-year old son actually threw a paintball (from paintball war games) at the wall. It splattered a spot of its’ flouresecnt ‘blood’ on the citation. Even he could not believe what had possessed him to be so stooopid! Big apologies and lots of remorse, BUT I had a problem to solve. I did it as decribed below for the Village shop muck-up.
I have serrated the edges of the painting to suggest a postage stamp and will float the painting in a mount. I drilled 2mm holes all round, then cut through the middles. This is a Japanese paper drill with a number of interchangeable sizes. You can buy it at Shepherds Bookbinders.
I love this Lin! On the icon course, Aidan spoke to us early on about perfection. He asked us to think about ‘the perfect imperfection’ versus the “imperfect perfection”. Tom Bree, the geometer, also spoke of the difference between the perfectly drawn computer image and the beauty of a hand drawn image with all the little flaws which make it interesting and alive. Back to your piece – it is wonderful, vibrant and stylish. If you go for a really heavy paper there is a little room for scratching out with an old fashioned razor blade,, then burnishing the paper down, but your technique is ingenious. Wonderful! These images would have great mileage on products! Fab Lin, your versatility is boundless! Ronnie
Thank you Ronnie!