43rd Annual Meeting – Objects Specialty Group Tips Session, May 16, “Lacquer Fills” by Ellen Promise, with Jessica Chloros and Holly Salmon

During the OSG tips luncheon, Ellen Promise, currently of Historic New England and formerly of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, presented new techniques for filling and inpainting lacquer.  The techniques, developed in collaboration with Jessica Choloros and Holly Salmon, are readily applicable to many types of objects, not just lacquer.
Lacquer objects, especially those damaged by light, have very sensitive surfaces; therefore creating fills in situ can be dangerous.  In the technique presented, Golden Acrylic Regular Gel Medium in matte was mixed with acrylic paint to a frosting-like consistency.  The tinted mixture was then cast out onto silicone release mylar.  After drying, the paint film remains flexible, has the bulk required for a fill, and resembles the sheen of aged lacquer.  The paint film is trimmed to shape with a scalpel and then adhered in place with fish glue or B-72.  While the fill isn’t invisible at the edges, it is harmonious with aged, cracked lacquer and remains reversible.

Promise also described her experiments with inpainting lacquer, specifically the fine gold lines often found on these objects.  While acrylic paint is easy to use, the texture and shine is often not a good match.  Promise tested several other options – metallic pens and markers, metallic paints, and mica powders dusted over sizes.  She evaluated the materials for color, texture, gloss, and adhesion to an acrylic substrate.  For the object in her case study, a Chinese export table in the collection of Historic New England, she had the best results with a Decocolor opaque paint marker.  The marker was a good color match and had a high pigment load without bulk.  The marker, which produced a fine line, could be used directly on the fill, or the ink could be dispensed into a palette, mixed with solvent, and brush applied.