This project involved the treatment and re-housing of a group of late 19th century Chinese two-dimensional figures. These figures are primarily made of paper and cardboard, and have painted face details, with many of the card sections covered in silk fabric. Some of the male figures have beards made up of strands of hair, adhered to the card. These areas of hair formed the focus for conservation; poor storage and insect damage had caused breakages and detachment, leaving the beard areas looking bare.

Various adhesive techniques for hair reintroduction using Japanese tissue paper were explored, taking inspiration from feather reattachment techniques used in taxidermy conservation. The final method formed the subject of my talk at the ICON 2019 Twitter Conference: Regrowth and Repair: Tackling hair loss in composite objects. For anyone interested in viewing the original series of tweets, they can be found in the link below: 

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Twitter talk, Becky Doonan Dec 2019