If the cloth is not backed first, glue can seep through the fabric and stain the right side of the fabric, thus ruining it. Apprentice Andrea Croak having just pasted backing paper to cloth. Andi lifting pasted cloth to place it on board to dry. The piece of fabric has to be washed and dried to pre-shrink it and to remove excess sizing, dyes and soaps. Then, working on a clean, non-porous surface, we lay the fabric in front of us and thoroughly dampened it with water.
Excess water is blotted out with scrap paper.
On another table, we lay out the piece of paper that we will use as backing-paper. The piece of paper is larger than the fabric - at least an inch larger on all sides. The consistency of the paste is like thick yogurt. When the backing-paper is pasted, we pick up the sheet with the aid of a wooden stick along a short edge, flip it over and place the opposite short edge over one end of the fabric. No air bubbles should be evident.