Oh my god I just made a protective plastic L-sleeve for a 5.5 feet (1.7 meters) long panoramic photograph and I just need to sit down for a bit now and catch my breath. It is longer than I am tall. That is a 15 inch ruler for scale, by the way. Did I mention […]
Tag: art conservation
I had to leave these photographs in the humidification chamber (aka our paper washing sink) overnight because they were so curled. As a result, I had several nightmares about what I would find today when I returned to work this morning. Here they are: 1) Someone came in and stole all 30 of the photographs […]
Just got a treat via Interlibrary Loan! The much-beloved, but limited-run journal known as “Recent Setbacks in Conservation”. Thanks to thegetty for loaning them! I’ll take good care of them while they’re in my possession. 🙂 Here’s just a sampling of what articles are contained within: “Restoration from Beyond: Is There a Happy Medium?” “Preserving a […]
So, I just learned about a Preservation ‘urban legend’ yesterday, while working a preservation “clinic” at a workshop hosted by my library. A man had brought a very brittle and fragile army base newspaper that belonged to his father. It was falling apart, and the paper was very pulpy and probably wouldn’t survive much more […]
Time wouldn’t be a very good conservator. Look how he’s poked his scythe right through the canvas! For shame.
Tape removal using a wood-burning tool.
I’m currently working on repairing this Victorian book of floral symbolism, and realized that a couple of the plates were loose and not in the right place. Unfortunately there was no paginated “List of Illustrations”, and the titles on the plates didn’t match up with the flowers listed in the table of contents. So what […]
Paste and methyl cellulose.
Cleaning a book spine, to prepare it for a new lining. Printed binder’s waste was used for the original spine lining. The book is “From grave to gay; being essays and studies concerned with certain subjects of serious interest, with the Puritans, with literature, and with the humours of life” by J. St. Loe Strachey.
*impotent scream of rage* File this away in “Bad Ideas to Not Repeat in Modern Times.” From: Huntting, H. R., co., inc., Springfield, Mass. Book Mending; Some Short Cuts And Labor Saving Devices. Springfield, Mass.: The H. R. Huntting company, 1938.