Asian Art Forum

Hello there,

My 2-year-old son found a loose pen somewhere and decided to add to the beautiful artwork my wife gave me for my birthday in 2008. It's been hanging in our bedroom, unscathed, since that time, and now our hearts are breaking as we look at the damage done by our lovely son.

Is there anything we can do to remove the black ink from the pen without ruining the scroll further?

The artwork is actually similar, if not exactly, this one: http://www.orientaloutpost.com/proddeta ... d=cshuchar

If there's anything we can do, please let me know, and thanks!

The five enemies of wall scroll artwork:
1. High and varying humidity
2. Direct sunlight
3. Pets (especially cats)
4. Kids
5. Nuclear fallout

Xuan paper doesn't really like erasers. It will rub off a bit and may lighten. I've had success removing pencil marks using a soft art eraser. But pen is a whole different animal.

I don't know what one of those "miracle" cleaning chemicals might do to the ink and the xuan paper.

My cheapest solution is this heavily-discounted wall scroll:
http://www.orientaloutpost.com/proddeta ... s-cshuchar
It has a slight blemish, but it solves the problem at half the price of a flawless replacement wall scroll.

I have girls aged 4, 2 and a half, and 1.
I've learned to hang my wall scrolls higher

Sorry that I don't have an easy answer for you.

-Gary.

hey gary youre right with the 5 enemies, and I wanted to ask to you, if I can protect it with a glass

Yes, you can protect it with glass. I don't mean to be snarky, but it's called "framing".

You can take any wall scroll, cut the top and bottom hardware off, and end up with a ready-to-frame portrait. Here's a forum topic where I show the before and after pictures for cutting:
http://www.orientaloutpost.com/forum/vi ... hp?t=27254

After you cut it, just take it to a framer to have a custom frame made for your artwork. Framing is expensive, but once done, the artwork will last a lifetime.

-Gary.