Question Repairing a Suede Mat

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AnneL

AnneL

SPFG, Supreme Picture Framing God
Joined
Jul 11, 2001
Posts
15,946
Loc
Wautoma, WI USA
Took in a piece earlier this week with badly shattered glass in it. Looked like it may have been damaged by a BB or other projectile but I wasn't going to ask. It had a definite hole with radiating breaks out from it.

Anyway, despite my best efforts to carefully remove the glass shards, the top mat, which is suede, has some scuffs and minor marks on it. Is there anyway to repair or minimize these on a suede mat? Thanks.
 
Did you try magic eraser? I did work on some minor scuffs on a suede mat I had. Sometimes pulling the suede with a kneading eraser works well too. Or slighly dampen and then brush carefully.

All depends on color of mat and how bad damage is...but I guess it can't go much worse....

In this case, where the problem came into your shop and wasn't your fault...I would have told them the mat is probably beyond saving and they might have to replace or leave it with scuff marks as is.
 
When I needed that Ember oval a few weeks back it was because I had tried and failed to de-scuff the last remaining piece I had in the shop (without buying a whole new sheet for an eensy size mat).

Nothing worked - no magic eraser, no damp brushing - nothing.

Sorry.
 
I went over it with the customer when they brought it in and couldn't see any damage but then it's hard to tell with a bazillion glass fragments on top of everything. Unfortunately, removing them turned into a wicked game of pickup sticks. If you moved one, the rest shifted and slid. I think that is when it actually got damaged.

The mat is light gray. Might be a tricky color to work with. I'll give the brushing a try. So far, I have spotted about 3 or 4 scuffs but only one is easily seen.
 
Try a painting sponge. Try a damp cloth. Try ironing after rubbing with a damp cloth. Try a stiff brush on the flattened areas. If there are bald places, you can 're-fuzz' with a razor blade and some Elmer's glue, but be prepared, when you are at this level of fooling around, to replace the mat at your own expense....

...and remember, time is money.
 
Good lesson! NEVER agree that there is no damage to a mat under broken glass until all of the glass has been removed. It's not you fault that there is damage.

:popc:
 
I didn't exactly agree there was no damage. Just said I didn't see anything but that it was difficult to judge with all the shards laying on top and I wasn't ruling it out. It's currently drying after using a damp paper towel to rough it up.
 
Try using a damp q-tip to gently rub the scratch marks. Allow the moisture to dry slowly, as that also helps the fibers recover. If you try using a razer blade to help rough of the surface, make sure the mat is COMPLETELY dry, as moist fibers will tear easily.

Good luck.
 
You could try a bristle stick. (That's what I call them) Sort of a pencil with glassfibre bristles in the end that you wind out as they wear. A camera shop might have one. Used for cleaning fine electrical contacts.
I use one for minor blemishes on matboards and they work very well. Not sure about suede. Worth getting one anyway. :thumbsup:
 
Looks like it worked! I'm going to leave it over the weekend and put the glass in next week. Thanks guys!

There was also some minor damage to the print from falling glass shards but I was able to hide that pretty well with my 000 brush and photographic dyes. Those old retouching skills still come in handy. I have to actually think about where some of the nicks were in order to find them now. I'll run it past Gary and if he can find any of them, I'll work on them some more.
 
I love happy endings!

:D
 
Glad to hear that you fixed up the scuff marks on the suede. I've had success using my steam iron; holding it above the matboard and letting the steam soften the fibres of the scuff mark. Then I'd take a soft tooth brush or even one of the foam paint brushes and gently go over the scuffs. This seemed to help a lot.
 
Thanks again for all the good tips. Mar, the framing gods really were smiling on me for once Saturday. Besides the repairs to this one, I got the fitting done on a convex oval that needed a new piece of convex glass and some minor touch up to the old frame. And I also finally got a piece for myself done I've been working on for a few weeks and started one I plan to ship to my daughter and son-in-law. Good day all around now I'm hoping it carries on into this week.
 
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