Re-Covering "Red"

The heavy brown paper tympan cover that I made for "Red" (see HERE) was worse than tatty and so it was all stripped away ready for a new one. This time round, I decided to try a fairly smooth bookcloth, which I hoped. The general principle was the same - to soak the cover before fixing it to the tympan frame so that it dried as tight as a drum. We sponged the bookcloth on each side and then on the first again so that it was soaked but not so wet that water pooled on it's surface:

I laid the bare frame on the wet bookcloth:

I then started to cut tabs of cloth which were covered in bookbinding paste, pulled tight and glued down. A bone folder was used to push the tab under the frame (see later):

The tabs look rough but they can be trimmed once the cover has dried.

 

 

The same procedure was carrid out with the inner tympan frame:

 

This detail shows hoe each tab is pushed under the frame to keep it secure and tight:

The two parts of the tympan were left to dry thoroughly in the studio:

The next morning, both parts were dry, tight and drummed in a very satisfying manner when tapped. I trimmed the excess tabs, packed and reassembled the tympan and reconnected it to the press. I made the top neater with some heavy brown paper:

Red is looking rather good...

... and is back to work again: