Poster repair
August 26, 2008 9:51 AM Subscribe
Need low-tech repair options for vintage paper poster. Is tape okay?
My father-in-law has a bunch of old (1960's) paper posters (unmounted, no lamination) taped to a wall in their summer home from a summer that he travelled in Europe. Sad to report that our toddler tore the bottom quarter off one of the posters. The tear is "clean"; if the edges are placed together, it is hard to discern the tear.
My father-in-law has shrugged it off and said he'll just tape it back up (with tape on the back of the poster). Anyone out there have any thoughts on the best way to repair the poster without causing any further harm to it? We're not looking to go through an in-depth restoration/repair, but I want to make sure I'm not overlooking any less intrusive methods of repair before I stick a piece of tape on it.
My father-in-law has a bunch of old (1960's) paper posters (unmounted, no lamination) taped to a wall in their summer home from a summer that he travelled in Europe. Sad to report that our toddler tore the bottom quarter off one of the posters. The tear is "clean"; if the edges are placed together, it is hard to discern the tear.
My father-in-law has shrugged it off and said he'll just tape it back up (with tape on the back of the poster). Anyone out there have any thoughts on the best way to repair the poster without causing any further harm to it? We're not looking to go through an in-depth restoration/repair, but I want to make sure I'm not overlooking any less intrusive methods of repair before I stick a piece of tape on it.
I am not an art restorer, but how about acid-free linen tape on the back?
posted by hydrophonic at 10:57 AM on August 26, 2008
posted by hydrophonic at 10:57 AM on August 26, 2008
I'd do the same thing as book repairers do when they fix torn pages. I believe they make a thin rice glue and paint it on to the tear. There was a link yesterday on Metafilter to a book repair site that probably has more details on this technique.
posted by zippy at 10:57 AM on August 26, 2008
posted by zippy at 10:57 AM on August 26, 2008
Typical tape would be a bad idea just because of the brittleness of the plastic. I would probably roll my own mending tape with pva (white glue) + rice paper. But I took a bookbinding class once, and I have those things lying around.
posted by O9scar at 11:01 AM on August 26, 2008
posted by O9scar at 11:01 AM on August 26, 2008
Response by poster: All excellent suggestions, thanks very much!
posted by dreamphone at 11:16 AM on August 26, 2008
posted by dreamphone at 11:16 AM on August 26, 2008
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by francesca too at 10:01 AM on August 26, 2008