Reply To: Second layer, mounting.

You see, you should never apply paste directly to the back of the scroll. Firstly, it will weaken the glue holding the seams together and so if you lift or move it there is danger it will all fall apart, secondly there is danger of making the painting itself bleed and run, third it might weaken the glue holding the backing paper of the silk/painting etc. The key is to avoid getting the scroll too wet; it just needs to be slightly moistened by spraying water over it so the scroll relaxes, the wrinkles and puckering flattens etc so the backing paper can go on flatly on the back. #ChineseMounting

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Reply To: Second layer, mounting.

You see, at this stage, just before the final backing, I completely soaked the scroll again, to make it flat onto the table, I spread the paste and then attached the final backing. I also neglected to make the pockets slightly wider so I could easily re-open them. #ChineseMounting

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Reply To: Second layer, mounting.

Aha! So stretching it was!

And I assume you paste such strips on the upper and lower edges too, so the traction would be from all around the perimeter? Or do the two on the sides suffice? #ChineseMounting

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Reply To: Second layer, mounting.

Those strips of xuan act as a temporary reinforcement attached to the edges so you can allow the scroll to stretch without the backing paper on it. This is especially used for scrolls that use thin silks that tend to contract and expand more than thicker ones such as those containing cotton so need to be pre-stretched and flattened before final backing process etc to avoid wrinkles and creases.

For that purpose, I always keep the trim-offs of the scroll edges as they are double-ply and strong enough not to tear under the forces involved. #ChineseMounting

• This reply was modified 1 minute ago by  charlesrtsua.

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Reply To: Second layer, mounting.

I took some time to watch all the three videos mentioned above by charlesrtsua and moqiao. Amazing that you never see the master use a square for anything! 🙂

There is a little something I don’t understand. In the first video, at about ‘35.00, the mounter cuts and pastes two narrow pieces of paper along the lateral sides of the scroll. Why?

I can only imagine they moisted the scroll, pasted these margins to the table and let it all dry so that the scroll would stretch and flatten before the final backing. #ChineseMounting

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Reply To: How can I avoid ink ´running off the painting´when I mount my painting?

Thank you dear charlestsua for your wonderful post! 🙂

Here is a question from a comment on Inkston Facebook discussion group *Chinese fine art and craft stories:

Chew Lung Lee: How about try to spray a weak solution of vinegar mixed with water onto the inked writing n dried first before starting the whole process. #Ink #Mounting

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Reply To: Paper mounting. Pigment movement

Thank you very much !!! #MountingChinesePainting

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Reply To: Paper mounting. Pigment movement

The problem is you’ve used Western watercolour pigment which is not the same as Chinese pigment. Chinese pigments contain more glue and this is so it binds to the paper more and survive the traditional wet mounting process. Western watercolours are not designed to be mounting in the Chinese way and so do not have enough glue and would bleed and run if you add water or soak the paper.

You could solve this problem by mixing in hide glue to the watercolours and using alum and glue etc to fix and stabilise the pigments but it would be better and easier to switch to using actual pigments that are meant for Chinese painting and mounting. #MountingChinesePainting

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Reply To: Gelatin/ Alum sizing: glues for ink, color, and mounting

The Chinese also use baiji (白芨) which is the root of an orchid, also used in Chinese medicine and as a natural glue (to make silk strings for musical instruments like the guqin etc); the glue is released by boiling the roots. It had been used during the mounting process in the past but not any more as I think it turns paintings yellow-brown over time, hence why many Song/Ming Dynasty paintings etc are really brown. It’s like how varnish turns old oil paintings brown after many centuries.

Hide glue (明膠) is mainly used to bind pigments together and I wouldn’t use it for mounting as the wheat starch paste is sufficient.

Alum is not much of an adhesive as it is a preserver and waterproofer and has insect repellent properties, so a pinch of it is added to the paste mix. #ChinesePainting #Gelatin #Mounting #NaturalGlue

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Reply To: Second layer, mounting.

Yes it would be great to have more subtitles…  it’s time consuming to do.

to refer to any other videos and links on the forums, just put the link on a separate line and the embedding etc will happen automatically… #ChineseMounting

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Reply To: Second layer, mounting.

Ah, ok! It never occurred to me to type Chinese! 🙂

And I remember watching this exact video recently! Hi, moqiao! Of course I must give it a lot of time to try to understand what is going on as I don’t speak Chinese.

About an year ago or so there was a channel called “TechenSu” or something that had a series of nine videos with all the stages presented by an old master mounter. For some reason, now only part 2 is available and I can’ t find the channel either, I think  they switched to hanzi completely in the name. I hope they took them down to make subtitles! 🙂 #ChineseMounting

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Reply To: Second layer, mounting.

this one?

  #ChineseMounting

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