Stretching Belief Part 2

This video is brought to you by Squarespace. From websites and online stores, to marketing tools and analytics, Squarespace is the all-in-one platform to build a beautiful online presence and run your business. In part one of Stretching Belief, we saw some work that, well, stretched belief. We saw excessive overpainting, inappropriate adhesives, and a repair on a tear that was, well, disappointing. You see, all of the canvas fibers were cut clean to facilitate the fill-in, which meant that this tear had no chance. That's one way of doing it. Another way would be to close the tear. Historically, weights have been sewn onto the canvas and gravity's been used to stretch canvas. Conservators have been developing and building contraptions, some rickety and improvised and some really quite beautiful and professional, to stretch closed a tear. All of these devices use mechanical force to pull the canvas together. In fact, early in my career, when faced with this problem, I did the same, but I used canvas and some clamps. Really nothing impressive, but it achieved the results I wanted. Well now, I think I can do better. And by do better, I mean I'm going to build myself a proper trekker. That's what these devices are called, German for pulling. And so I've modeled mine up in 3D, just to see what it's going to look like. I think it's going to work. I hope it's going to work. But let's be honest, would I pass up any chance to build or use a new tool? I mean, tools are fun. And you didn't think I was going to let this opportunity to talk about Squarespace slip by, because Squarespace is an amazing tool. Actually, Squarespace isn't a single tool. It's more like a Swiss army knife of online tools. You see, with Squarespace, you can design and build and launch your own website. You can use their tools to create a gallery to showcase your work. You can use their tools to build an online e-commerce solution. You can use their tools to add contact forms, to schedule bookings online. The list goes on and on. If you can dream it, Squarespace has a tool to make it happen. And unlike the tools I build, which come with no user guides or instructions, Squarespace has thought of that too. They have online videos to walk you through their platform. In addition, there's a robust user base of people just like you who will step in to help you figure out problems when they arise. So head over to squarespace.com for a free trial. And when you're ready to launch, go to squarespace.com slash Baumgartner to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. Geez, I wish Squarespace would get into the art conservation business. There are times when I could use a little help. And every new tool starts with raw materials. And here I have chosen aluminum as opposed to steel because it's more easily machined. And over wood because it's much more durable and precise. And so I'm laying down a bunch of nuts on top of this aluminum and I've laid down some dye chem. I'm also using a tungsten carbide scribe to mark this aluminum. I'm going to need to punch or drill a whole bunch of holes in this aluminum I-beam. And I'm making 10 marks corresponding with each of those 10 nuts. And then I'm going to come with my punch and just make a punch for each one. And this is essential because it's going to help my drill bit seat. If you've ever used a drill bit, you know that sometimes they wander and that is not what I want. I want precision. So I'm using a little bit of cutting oil, which is almost completely unnecessary for this soft aluminum and this high-speed steel bit. But, you know, I have it and it can help the bit last longer. So I am drilling 10 holes into this aluminum. And each of those holes is going to receive one of those nuts. But I also have to do it on the other side. Now I'm going to switch to a smaller bit. And above each one of those holes, I'm going to drill another hole centered on the other one. Now with those holes drilled, I'm going to start assembling part of the tool. I'm using a little bit of thread locker inside of these nuts. And then I'm threading on some stainless steel rod. And no, I didn't cut myself. It's just the thread locker all over my hands. And it'll remain there for about a week because it's stained them. Now over to my mill. I have locked in some square aluminum tubing. And I'm going to start milling off the end so that it fits a rounded shape. Now once I have done this, going very, very slowly, making sure not to chatter anything or damage the aluminum, we can see that I have a nice concave surface on this aluminum tube. And it fits this piece of aluminum stock. So I'm going to trim off this little piece. And I've made four of them. I have to make two of these tools after all. And I'm going to place them on my I-beam. I'm going to then place that aluminum stock there, clamp it into place, and start preparing for more holes. Theme of this is holes. As a conservator, I fill them. But now I'm making them. And at this point, I've made just about enough to know how many fill the Albert Hall. The center punch is absolutely critical. And you can see my bit having trouble finding it. But once it does, boy, it is locked in. Particularly when trying to drill on a rounded surface, that punch matters. So I'm going through that round stock, through the hollow square tubing, and into the I-beam. With that hole drilled, I'm now going to countersink a recess into this round stock using my countersinking bit. And this is going to be an area for a screw or bolt head. I don't want it sticking out and catching on anything. Now I'm using a hardened 401 stainless self-tapping screw, and it's going to go through the stock into the aluminum, and it's going to lock it in place. That's not going anywhere. Now I have another piece of rounded aluminum stock, this one very small, only about a quarter of an inch. And it's a half circle. And I need to drill holes in this too. So again with the punch, again with the bit, I'm going to use my laser here on the aluminum to help me center it, and through the stock into the I-beam. And here, another hardened steel self-tapping screw, just to hold it in place. This is ugly and I don't like it, but it suffices. And I'll change it later. Maybe. Maybe not. So on to more marking for, you guessed it, more holes. Again with the cutting fluid, because I like it. Makes me feel like a machinist, even though I am hardly one. Now these holes need to be tapped. So in what will make every machinist cringe, I have put my tap into my drill, and I am just going to make sure I get a nice clean tap all the way through. Now this is aluminum, so it's child's play. For steel, oh it would have been a disaster. Now it is time to clean up all of the mess I have made. And I'm just rounding over the edges and softening them up, getting rid of burrs so it doesn't cut me or catch on anything. And now at this point, fabrication is just about complete. You can see both of them that I've made. Now I can start really assembling them. Well, as soon as I clean up a bit. There. All clean. Now I'm taking those threaded steel rods that have been secured into those nuts, and I'm dropping them into the holes. I have 10 per tool. And then I'm taking some little furniture nuts, and I'm just threading them onto the steel rods too. I like to use off-the-shelf or catalog products when making tools, because A, they're cheap, they're readily available so that other people can copy what I'm doing, and it just takes less work than having to mill and machine custom parts. And if one breaks, I can get a new one. So with all of those nuts threaded, I can then fill all of the other side's nuts with some jelly. I mean, threadlocker. And then I can thread on those nuts to the steel rod. I'll use an allen key here because, well, you see my bandaid? Yeah, that's what happens when you don't. And I'm making sure not to clamp down all the way. I want a little bit of movement so that these things aren't just locked in place. They need to move after all. Now into those two threaded holes, I am putting some more bolts. These also have an allen key on the end, but they have a little fitting for a foot on the other end. And with a little, or maybe a lot of force, I can get them in place. And these feet will help distribute the load onto the surface. Actually pretty important. And now we're done. Well, not really. While the aluminum work is all done, I still have to make the threads and the strings and all the fittings. So I'm using some of that Kevlar string that I have, and I'm going to tie a figure eight knot on the end, thread it through that small hole, down around that large round stock, and slip it onto that nut. Now once it's pulled taut, you'll start to get an idea of why I did this. Now on the other end, I'm using a fishing lure fitting. These are 150 pounds, so they're definitely strong. And now we're finished. Right? Yeah, I mean, everything's done. No, of course not. You see, while the tool is done, there still needs to be an interface for the painting. So I'm taking some sailcloth, which is just a nylon product. It doesn't stretch and it's heat resistant, and I'm folding it and ironing a crease into it. In addition, I'm going to take some of the film adhesive that I use when lining paintings or doing other treatments, and I'm going to adhere the two ends together. And this adhesive has incredible shear strength. It's really, really strong if you try to pull it apart. It's got great tear strength as well. So once I have ironed it down and created this little envelope, I'll trim off the excess to make it look, you know, nice and professional. And I'll slide in a small steel rod into that sleeve. And then, once it's in, I can measure out 10 points, each one coinciding with one of the 10 Kevlar strings. And using a little soldering iron, I'm just going to make those holes. Using a soldering iron actually is a great idea because it keeps the nylon from fraying. Now, before I can use this tool, I have to do some other prep work. And I'm going to take the stretcher for the painting, I'm going to square it up, and then I'm going to secure it in place with these wooden triangles. I know, why am I turning a stretcher into a strainer? Something that I rail against all the time. Well, in this case, it's not going to actually be used as a stretcher, it's just a support for the painting. And the painting, now having come out of weights after that hot table treatment, is flat, all the distortions have been removed, and I'm going to lay it onto this strainer. And, well, I'm going to secure it. Using tacks, I'm going to go along just like I would normally stretch a painting, starting in the middle and working out to the sides. I don't need to put a ton of tension on this at this point, but I do need to make sure that it is in place and secured evenly. This is actually pretty critical, so I'm going to take as much care as if I were doing a final stretching for this temporary stretching. And now I can go over and place this painting on my other table where it won't be disturbed. And painting meet tool, and tool meet painting. Now, I did have to size down some of those corner wedges because they were just a little bit too big. And I'm aligning these tools with this tear, making sure that they are in position. Once they are, I'll slide a little block of wood, and I'll clamp down the tool. I don't want it to move, and using these little feet helps me make sure that the load is distributed evenly and I don't damage this little piece of oak blocking. Now, if I thought I was done, well, I kind of am, but kind of not. I need more string. So, here we go, cutting Kevlar. Once I've cut all of the Kevlar strings I need, ten more to be precise, I will thread them through the little nylon and steel apparatus piece I made and use some more figure eight knots. These are old knots that I learned when I used to rock climb, and they are self-tightening. So, as you put more force on them, they get tighter, which is precisely what I want. I don't want any of my knots coming loose while I'm treating a painting. And now, with all of those threads tied in, I think I am done making knots. Oh, thank goodness. Well, actually, I'm not. Of course, every time I think I'm done, there's more to do. I have to tie each one of those threads onto its corresponding fishing lure spinny thingy. I don't know what they're called, but you get the point. And then I'm taking more of that film adhesive, and I'm going to use my small tacking iron to secure it to the piece of canvas in the tear. Let's call it the peninsula. I'm going to peel off the backing, and then I'm going to adhere that little apparatus, let's call it the fixture, onto the canvas. Now, this is not a permanent bond. I can remove this with heat or solvent, but it is a strong bond. It is not going anywhere. Now, I have to do it for both sides, and each side corresponds to one tool, as you can see. Now, once everything is secured into place, I can come and take some water and start dampening up the little peninsula. That's that little free-floating tear. You can see how quickly this canvas absorbs this moisture, and that's a good indication that the adhesive that was on the back is all gone. This water is penetrating right into the canvas, which is what I want. And now, using a little Allen key, I can start tightening up each one of these strands. You see, as I turn the Allen key clockwise, the nut moves backwards and pulls on that Kevlar string, which pulls on the canvas. It starts to stretch it. It's a trekker. And you can see how it gets taut, and the Kevlar stretches, oh, just a tiny, tiny bit, much less than any other string. And moving along, I'm just going to start to add pressure very, very slowly. I don't want to do this in one fell swoop. I just want to build up the pressure and slowly pull this canvas. Really, really slowly. Some of the knots are starting to come a little bit loose, but they're going to hold throughout the process. Trust me. I know. Now, it's absolutely imperative that I keep an eye on what I'm doing. I don't care how much tension, how many turns of this Allen key I add. I just need to focus on where the tension is going. Now, I can actually use sound to adjust these, just like a guitar string, which is really kind of cool. I want even tension, and so making sure that they're all taut, well, that's going to help me. Now, this process takes at least a day, maybe more, and you can see already the canvas is starting to close up that tear. I'll have to come back periodically, add a little bit more water, add some more tension, rinse, lather, repeat, so on and so forth, slowly pulling this canvas towards the tears. And that's the whole point of this. I want to close up those gaps as much as I possibly can so that I don't have to use a lot of fill-in, which is always a fail point. And this procedure was pretty much all I did all day. Monitor, go putz around the studio, come back and check, go do some more putzing around, come back and check. Really, this was my sole focus. This is not something that I take very lightly. I'm putting a lot of tension on this canvas and stretching it, and I want to make sure that I'm fully present and not distracted or have to step away for something else. The last thing I want is for the canvas to tear or to get distorted, so it really does need my full attention. And once it's all done, at the end of the day, I can start to remove the tension. Now, I use a drill here because it's much faster, but I would never do this to add tension. I use my iron to peel up that apparatus interface thingy out of sailcloth that helped me achieve the stretching, and when I remove it, you can see that that tear is just about closed. Pretty neat, huh? I will have to use so much less fill-in material than previous, and that's going to mean this repair has a higher degree of succeeding. The closer the canvas is, the less fill-in, the less chance for failure. The first time I saw this done, I was gobsmacked, and I had to try it. But having a tool designed for it, well, that makes it really, really fun. And you can see, while I couldn't get them perfectly closed everywhere, this is pretty close. Now, unfortunately, I have to line this painting with an interleaf. The tear is too complicated, there's not enough material there, and even if were to bridge it, it would still probably fail eventually. But pulling the canvas together, and minimizing the amount of fill-in I have to use, and also just getting it tighter, is going to yield a far superior result than if I tried it the way that the other person did. Now, I can use this tool to pull smaller tears closer together, but for now, I'm going to line this painting with the interleaf on the hot table. That's where the canvas is adhered to a new canvas, with a rigid PET substrate between the two. With the lining process all complete, I can move on to stretching, filling in, and retouching, and ultimately varnishing this painting. While the piece is still flat, I'm going to take the opportunity to fill in the gaps and the voids where the paint is missing. Now, I'm using a flexible putty that will allow me to fill in these voids, and also create some texture so that this fill-in matches the surrounding canvas. It wouldn't work if it was perfectly smooth, because the canvas is textured. So I'm going to have to do something to this fill-in to make it blend away. It's not enough to just retouch colors accurately, the surface texture must match too. Now, if you remember to the beginning of the video, the fill-in medium had a texture imparted onto it, but it was of canvas in the negative, and that didn't match. So I've dusted this fill-in with some chalk to make sure that it's not sticky, and then using a little silicone mold of canvas that I made from this painting, I'm pressing it into that fill-in while it's still soft. And this silicone mold has been made from this painting, and when pressed in, it will yield a texture that matches the painting. Simply taking a piece of canvas and pressing it into this fill-in won't work, because that will yield a negative, and we want a positive. Now, unfortunately, it is not as simple as pressing a silicone mold into the soft putty and calling it quits. It takes a lot more work. I can press it in, but then I have to use dental tools and silicone spatulas to mold and work this fill-in to make sure that it matches. And once it's all done, I have to let it dry overnight, and then come back and start working it again, removing any excess fill-in that's on top of existing paint, and also checking for high and low spots, because those, of course, would give away the fact that there is fill-in here. And when I find a high spot, I will shave it down with a scalpel, and you may have noticed that my selection of tools expanded from the previous day. It's just a testament to how much work it takes to get this fill-in accurate. Retouching is actually kind of easy, because it's in real time. You can see the colors and change them, but it's not until you put the retouching on that you know if your fill-in has been good or not. Now, once all of the fill-in work is complete, I can move on to stretching this painting. And I have left the little triangles in the corners of the stretcher screwed on, because they're holding this stretcher square and true, and there's no reason to remove them. Now, this painting was lined with an interleaf, which means that it is largely immobilized against humidity changes. When the relative humidity changes or temperature changes, this painting is not going to expand and contract. The PET film lining prevents that. So having a stretcher isn't really critical, because we can't stretch this painting. The PET film is not stretchable. So I could put this onto a fixed strainer, but of course we have a stretcher, the original one, so there's no reason to get something else. Now, once I have completed stretching or tacking this painting to the stretcher, I can then move on to removing these little triangles. They have served their purpose valiantly, but they are going into the bin. I'll probably use them again, but probably not. As always, I'm going to tidy up the back, because I think it looks good. And even though this painting isn't going to be under a lot of tension, I have a sneaking suspicion that these little tacks can help in making sure that the canvas resists some of that pulling that may happen when a painting is stretched. And now, on to varnishing. Well, actually, not yet. I'm going to put an isolation layer down on this painting. And the isolation layer serves many purposes, but in this case, it's not to protect the paint from my retouching colors, and it's not to saturate up the colors. It's to help fill in some of the texture. I want a more smooth surface than this painting has, because it'll help me hide the retouching a little bit better. And this resin is a heavier resin. It's more like syrup than water, and so it will level out and fill in some of that little texture. I'm thinking maybe I should put a motor on this easel. Maybe one day when I'm bored. So I'm putting more restoration colors on my palette, and now I'm going to just start working the retouching. Mixing colors is really a joy when it's a joy. Sometimes, however, you think you got it, and you don't. Clearly, these colors are not completely accurate, but that's okay. They don't need to be just yet. Right now, I'm just trying to cover up that white area where the fill-in is, just with any color that's remotely similar. But even then, I don't need to be 100% accurate, because I'm going to be using lots of different colors to create this retouching. Slightly darker, slightly lighter, a little bit more blue, a little bit more yellow. This varying palette of little dots is going to help your eye blend in the retouching. If it was just one color, it would actually stand out. Now, this is one part that is kind of frustrating. Because this painting was abraded and skinned when it was last cleaned, pretty much every single point on the canvas that is a high point has been damaged. And I have to decide just how much to retouch. Now, I talked to my client, and we decided to retouch as much as possible without going too far. Because of course, if I retouched every little dot, I may as well just repaint the entire sky. In one square centimeter, there are probably 25 or 30 little dots. Now extrapolate that over the entire painting, and really, you'd have almost as much retouching as you would sky. So, I'm going to be hitting the ones that are most distracting, where they are clumped together, or where, from a distance of about three feet, my eye picks up on them. Because that's the point at which one would naturally look at this painting. Any closer, and you're missing the whole scene. And any farther, and you really can't take it all in. So I'm going to go ahead and lay down some color. And even though this looks pretty accurate, this is definitely just the first step. And there are many steps. I will revisit this retouching multiple times to make sure that it looks good. Now luckily for me, the majority of this retouching is in blue. And for some reason, blues just makes sense to me. My brain seems to know how to mix them without me consciously doing anything. Some colors are not like that, but blues are. And I suspect that's just from years and years of practicing and retouching. Now you can see I am literally going over each individual spot of missing paint. Just tapping it with the brush in an attempt to reintegrate these losses. I mentioned that it would be almost impossible to cover the entire painting where all of the losses are, because look at it. It is absurd how much damage there is. So I'm going to try my best, where the damage is concentrated, to break it up. To make it so that when we look at the painting, we can see the sky without seeing the damage. I know that kind of sounds cheeky, but here's the thing. When you step back from the painting, the higher concentration of losses will catch your eye and you'll notice them. So if we can break those up and minimize their impact on your viewing experience, well then that's successful retouching. Of course, if you get up close with a magnifying glass, you will see all sorts of stuff that I missed or left alone. You'll probably even see that my blues aren't completely accurate. But that's the thing. We don't need to be bullseye precise. We just need to hit the target somewhere. Because our eyes will gather that data and our brains will process it and fill in the gaps. So we know that this is a sky. We know that it's supposed to be blue and even. And so if there are areas that are just not 100%, well our eyes and our brains will work in conjunction to overlook those areas. And we will interpret this as a cohesive sky. So retouching doesn't always have to be 100% 100% of the time. It's just got to be enough to get you past the damage. So who is Z.C. Sanderson? Born 1884, Zachary Chandler Sanderson died 1973. He attended the University of Michigan where he was graduated in the class of 1908 with a degree in literary studies. He spent the majority of his career at the Indiana Department of Conservation. How fitting. Where he primarily focused on writing for the department's magazine and contributing scholarly articles about the natural environment. He spent some time out in California and I think in New York as well. But ultimately Indiana was his lifelong home. Now while at the Indiana Department of Conservation he contributed not only literary articles to the magazine but also illustrations. It seems that he became their default illustrator on staff. Drawings of wildlife and the natural environment were all credited to him and enriched the publication. Now there is only one other record of a painting by Z.C. Sanderson that was sold at auction quite some time ago and it is a really beautiful landscape. So why Mr. Sanderson never chose to make more art or pursue art as something other than a hobby? Well I don't know and frankly I'm a little disappointed because I think the world would be better with more Sanderson paintings. Now this retouching is slow going and it took several days for me to finish it up. Taking lots of breaks is absolutely critical but ultimately I was able to finish. Now the last step for this painting is the application of a UV stable synthetic reversible varnish and it doesn't take much. Just one brush charged with varnish will cover this whole painting. I like to go around the edges first and deposit the majority of the varnish there so that as I'm brushing back and forth I can distribute it a little bit more evenly. And it's really as simple as back and forth, switch directions, back and forth, lather, rinse, repeat. Although for this painting I am going to brush out the varnish so as the solvent evaporates and the resin starts to tack up I'll go back and forth multiple times to create a micro texture in this varnish which will make it really beautiful and velvety. And there it is all complete. Now it doesn't look all that different than it did when it came in. I mean there's no massive losses it's not a significantly brighter painting but there is a subtle nuance a real delicacy that was just completely lost beforehand. Oh you know what else is lost? That massive wound going through the sky. By doing the conservation properly I was able to remove that big unsightly scar. By stretching the canvas and closing that gap I limited how much fill-in medium I needed and used an appropriate texture and accurate conservative retouching to blend it all in and make it go away. When the painting arrived at the studio it was clear that the reason it was here was for the massive tear. But it wasn't until we started taking a closer look at it that we found something not right. And even under UV light it was almost impossible to see upon first glance because the entire painting was overpainted. Stretching belief was an understatement. After conservation my retouching looks radically different mainly because you can see it and you can see the original paint. Under natural light well the painting kind of looks the same there's a little bit more variation throughout the painting. The tear is gone and knowing that the work is as it should be respecting the artist well that's something in which I can believe. My client was gracious enough to join me for one more video in the studio. A final grand reveal of the painting as he's never seen it before. And if you're a Patreon subscriber that video is live right now go check it out. If you're not well you're gonna have to wait a week or so before it comes up on YouTube. As always thanks for watching and see you next time.