25 June 2017

Today, we (Lovely, Chetna, Subhashini) began our day by practicing the surface dry cleaning of paper and photo documentation under the guidance and supervision of Namita Jaspal Mam.

PHOTO DOCUMENTATION
Photo documentation is done for various purposes including condition assessment, decision making for conservation plan and assessing the success of the conservation treatment, to name a few. It is a very important basic step or process for record keeping. Its objective is to record the information and evidence for research and comparative studies.

SURFACE DRY CLEANING

It is a physical cleaning technique used to remove dust, insect dropping, accretions or other surface deposits.  Dry cleaning is the term used in paper conservation which does not allow the use of chemicals.

PURPOSE

The purpose of surface cleaning is to remove the deteriorating accretions embedded in the texture of paper.

PROCEDURE

• Documentation – for condition assessment we first of all took a video and then still photographs of each and every page of the bound maps.
• We held a map of size A0 carefully with the help of Hollytex sheet beneath it.
• Before dry cleaning process Namita Jaspal mam did the initial strengthening of the map as it was brittle and delicate.
• Then, we put the eraser crumbs on the surface rubbing it in the circular motion.
• We concentrated on the each small portion so that dust particles could be removed properly.
• The colour of eraser crumbs turned brown after removing the dust particles.
• Finally, we removed the crumbs from the surface with the help of a brush.