This past academic year, I performed infrared false color analysis on two samples of pre-20th century, marbled papers. Afterwards, I created and presented a poster on my findings during the West Dean Arts and Craft Festival. The process of proposing the research and presenting it was a fantastic opportunity for me to 1) pursue research I have been interested in, 2) interact with the public about conservation, and 3) discover where the research will lead me next. Here is the resulting poster, recto and verso (to see poster, click on the images): 1) Pursuing research My background in analytical analysis and photography has led me to explore applications of photographic techniques in conservation. I enjoy finding ways to utilize the equipment at hand to discover the most about objects. Additionally, inspiration came from Abigail Bainbridge’s blog post. I met with her and discussed my research. She was incredibly supportive in answering questions and sharing her insights. 2) Interacting with the public Creating this poster and sharing it with the public was a highlight during the academic year. I assembled a table with different examples of marbled papers (both on books and in separate sheets), books about how to create marbled papers, and the poster. I spoke to guests about the history of marbled papers, their uses, and using a photographic technique to assist in pigment identification. Generally, the interests and questions were mostly about the history of the marbled papers and how to make them at home. However, I did have a few guests ask about camera techniques and even some scientifically-minded guests inquire on the correlative analysis techniques. Overall, it was a positive experience and everyone seemed to leave having an appreciation of marbled paper and what a conservator can do. 3) Discover (in the future) There are many further research topics that have arisen from the project but here are two which immediately came to mind. I would like to identify the pigments on the samples using correlative techniques such as FTIR and a portable XRF (possibly with filters). I did not have enough time to conduct that research last year, but I would like to continue this coming year. Additionally, narrowing down the factors affecting the how the sensors in the camera perceive the pigments is a new goal, particularly the light. Understanding the type of light illuminating the sample can change the way it is perceived by the sensors in the camera. Unfortunately, I had a mixture of light sources illuminating my sample. When I attempted it with just the lamps in our workshop, I had to do it at night (because there are skylights in the ceiling). The type of bulbs we had did not produce enough illumination to allow the camera to capture an image through the IR filter. After a few tries adjusting settings in the camera, this left the only option of waiting until peak daytime, with the lamps on, in order to capture a clear image. In preparing and conducting this project, I scoured articles by Cultural Heritage Science Open Source. I have found them to be a rich resource for understanding the types of lights and filters used when conducting multispectral analysis. I am very much looking forward to exploring and answering the remaining questions I have in the future.
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The third week of the treatment has been focused on page repairs using varying weights of Japanese paper and wheat starch paste. There are three main types of damage affecting the pages of the India Album.
Updating my recipe of wheat starch paste using Talas’ Wheat Starch Aytex-P, prepared with a microwave:
A volunteer: Additionally, I was able to go from working on 5 pages (which is the max, I could seem to handle working solo) to 11! This was all thanks to the help of a volunteer, Danielle Settlemeyer. Danielle has come as a volunteer to USAHEC’s conservation department from the archives. She previously had training in item handling and some conservation experience. This was also the first time I had a chance to train a volunteer in assisting me with a project. It certainly brought back memories of when I was first being trained. Danielle will be assisting me a few more times during the page repair stage of this process. This summer I am interning at the United States Army Heritage and Education Center (USAHEC). The main item I am working on is an album from the late 19th century. It was a gift from the Quartermaster of India to the Quartermaster of the US Army and it is filled with albumen photographs. Unfortunately, this album has seen better days. When I was first introduced to this project, the album had been unbound by my supervisor Jordan Ferraro, conservator at USAHEC, in order to be digitized. Yet, prior to that chapter in its life, the original leather spine deteriorated and was replaced with a paper-based covering (I cannot seem to identify the exact type of material, invoking further research), the book block had warped and the leather covering the boards was badly deteriorated with red rot. Additionally, many of the pages are brittle and have cracked to the point of detaching from their hinge binding structures. There are numerous other damages to it, but the afore listed are the most striking and problematic. The goal of this treatment is to conserve the album so that it may safely be accessed and, if time allows, for the album to be reassembled. Currently in the treatment process, I have removed the remaining hinge materials from the pages using a methyl cellulose poultice and spatula. For a 96-page album, this process averaged 45 to 60 minutes per page. During the removal process, I had two main concerns.
1:4 ratio of wheat starch to DI water 700 Watt Microwave: 30 seconds (6x) then 10 seconds (6x) with stirring between each period. Since being at West Dean College of Arts and Conservation, I have become accustomed to PEL’s wheat starch powder and my own hot plate method of creating it. Using the microwave will be an adjustment, but I look forwarding to perfecting a recipe using this method as well. |
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