Backing

1. Use soft, clean, white, single ply rice paper to back a scroll. Cut the paper large enough to extend 1 and 1/4 inches beyond the scroll, including hanging bar sleeves. Use heavier paper for large scrolls.
   
   
2. Do this in a raining day if possible. Laminate two sheets of papers by thin paste. Refer to preparing silk.
   
   
3. Spread the scroll facing down over that just laminated. Lightly sprinkle the entire back of the scroll with water, including hanging bar sleeves, to let it stretch. Give the artwork less water if it is thinner than the silk. This will prevent creases. Turn the scroll over and loosely roll it up from the bottom. Wait till it is evenly moistened.
   
   
4. Give a even coat of thin paste to the laminated sheet. Spread the well-moistened scroll over it and gently press the scroll down with a clean, dry bristle brush.
   
   
5. Turn both the backing and the scroll over. Sweep the back of the scroll lengthwise by a coir brush to firmly cement the backing to the scroll. Pay attention to the joins and the border.
   
   
6. Take up the lower sleeve and give thin paste at the very edge of the silk to temporarily fix the sleeve to the silk.
   
   
   
   
7. Cut colored and patterned rice paper one inch wide and about half the width of the scroll. Apply thin paste to the strip and paste it to the upper right corner of the scroll. This will be the place for the name of the painter.
   
   
   
   1. Upper sleeve
   2. Backing
   3. Silk
   
   
8. Cut silk, which may be leftover of the scroll and which must be supported, in two strips of 3/4 inch wide and 5 inches long. Apply thin paste to the back of the strips and paste them on each side of the scroll where the lower sleeve and silk overlaps. This strengthens the sleeve.
   
   
   
   
9. Turn the scroll over to check any defect. Apply thin paste to the edges of the backing and paste the scroll to a mounting board.