The paper tigress

And her intensive masters programme at Canada’s Queen’s University gave her the right mix of theoretical and practical knowledge on every aspect of paper. Back in Mumbai, it was time to put her expertise to practise. "The first step was to spread awareness about the fact that paper objects may look okay, but they are deteriorating. Nobody here knows that paper can be conserved," she says.

She decided to first get her foot in the door by interacting with people in the art world. Simultaneously, she also worked at the Asiatic Society’s conservation laboratory. But she gave it up because she didn’t want to focus on books. "It is a separate area of specialisation and I preferred to concentrate on book pages, photographs and fine art on paper," she says.

Saloni explains that the life of a paper object depends on several factors. "It starts from the manufacturing process — paper that is made from 100 per cent cotton, without using bleach, will last longer. Which isthe reason why ancient manuscripts have survived for so long," she says. A lot depends on how an object is framed as well. "Most framers don’t use acid-free boards. The yellow discolouration you see on paintings or the little brown spots you see in old books are all caused by acid which gets transferred on the paper," she says. If an object has a cloth backing which is not made from quality material, it could also turn acidic and affect the paper.

Constant contact with light could result in fading and bleaching and a damp wall could damage a work forever. Besides storage, how a paper object is handled is of paramount importance.

But not every piece of paper needs conservation. There is a vast difference between conserving a work of art and restoring it. "By restoration we mean something that is done to an object to enhance its aesthetic appeal — like retouching. Conservation encompasses the processes of preservation for the future," she says. The first step towards conserving paper is to clean thesurface and wipe off the dirt embedded in it. "Then we test the colour pigments — if they bleed in water it could be fatal," she says. Also while treating the paper she tries to avoid chemicals because that could damage the paper in the long run.

In case of a hole or a minor tear, Saloni uses Japanese tissue paper to patch it up. "Then I flatten the object after humidifying it and if necessary I also do in painting," she says. But she refuses to retouch an object because it would amount to interfering with the artist’s work. "If I have no picture of what the painting looked like before, I can’t make up the design. But I can blend it with the background so that it is not distracting to the eye," she says.

Treating any object could take anywhere between three days to a month. "I have to do everything manually — there are no machines and there is no assistant I can entrust a task to," she says. And that for her is the greatest creative challenge.