Papering Fusuma
I live in a reasonable sized house that's largely Japanese style. There are six fusuma, wooden framed sliding doors covered in cardboard and paper, that act as closet doors for the deep Japanese-style closets. My cats have ripped the hell out of the paper on the fusuma, so I'm trying to re-paper them before I leave so that I don't have to pay the landlords to do it. I did the first two yesterday and today, and I'm a little worried. I stripped the old paper off the doors so that there's just the cardboard layer. I got a kind of paper that you lay out, wet down, and iron around the edges. The trouble is that I've ended up with some air bubbles in the ironed down part. Re-wetting the paper and ironing it again has helped, but I haven't been able to get all of the bubbles out and now there are a few wrinkles too. I'm worried that after the work (and cost) of trying to paper these myself that my landlord might make me pay to have them redone.
My questions for you all are...
1. If you have fusuma in your house or apartment, are there any visible air bubbles in the paper? I'm wondering if this is a common problem and considered normal/acceptable, or if I'm just having this trouble because I'm a foolish gaijin.
2. Have you ever done the fusuma paper yourself? Did you use iron on paper or some other kind, and how did it go?
3. Have you paid to have fusuma re-papered by professionals? How much did it cost? Since this is taking me so long and not coming out so great, if it's not too expensive to have someone else do it I might not bother with the rest.
I know it's kind of a long shot that anyone has done this, but I figured I'd give it a try.
Also, if anyone wants tips on how to paper shoji screens, give me a shout. I've done all of those in my house too, and they came out nicely.
My questions for you all are...
1. If you have fusuma in your house or apartment, are there any visible air bubbles in the paper? I'm wondering if this is a common problem and considered normal/acceptable, or if I'm just having this trouble because I'm a foolish gaijin.
2. Have you ever done the fusuma paper yourself? Did you use iron on paper or some other kind, and how did it go?
3. Have you paid to have fusuma re-papered by professionals? How much did it cost? Since this is taking me so long and not coming out so great, if it's not too expensive to have someone else do it I might not bother with the rest.
I know it's kind of a long shot that anyone has done this, but I figured I'd give it a try.
Also, if anyone wants tips on how to paper shoji screens, give me a shout. I've done all of those in my house too, and they came out nicely.