After the last wild year of pandemic protocols, it was my great pleasure to attend a continuing education course at the Georgia Archives on Infilling Losses & Inpainting of Paper Objects. The workshop was fun and informative. Sigourney Smuts, the Conservator at the Georgia Archives, taught the class.
Sigourney covered a variety of infilling techniques, including beveled & inserted infills, as well as pulp infills. This last method was one I was particularly excited to learn more about.
During the workshop, she also covered three inpainting techniques.
Tonal – Not replacing the original, just matching the general tone of the surrounding color so that the loss is not glaringly obvious.
Facsimile – Painting the infill to match as closely to the original as possible.
Tratteggio – This method involves inpainting & following the natural lines & curves of the imagery in the piece. Essentially, if you look closely you can see that it is a restoration, but it blends sympathetically with the surrounding artwork by mimicking the same line qualities.
It was truly delightful to have a chance to meet for a course in person, learn some new techniques and meet new colleagues in the process.
