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This blog post is about the conservation and preservation of a scrapbook/album with extremely important documents, pictures and maps, that was breaking into pieces because of ageing and brittleness. During initial observations it was found that it is extremely difficult…
Namita JaspalHeritage Preservation Atelier, Chandigarh, Indianamitajaspal72@gmail.com, heritage.atelier@gmail.comhttp://www.heritagepreservationatelier.comKeywords – Sikh art, Mural paintings, Conservation, Religion AbstractThis case study regarding the conservation of wall paintings at The Golden Temple (Sri Harmandar Saheb Ji) Amritsar, India, intends to highlight some specific conservation issues…
Aspergillus niger is one of the most active cellulolytic fungi. The roll of drawings in the above picture is mainly infested by A. niger and Chaetomium sp. as identified from the cultures isolated from the deteriorating inner-side of the roll….
What is sellotape? Sellotape is basically a brand of transparent, polypropylene-based, pressure-sensitive tape. But, this term is also used for any such pressure sensitive tape of any brand. Sellotape is generally used for joining, sealing, attaching and mending. The older…
Humidity relaxes the paper stiffness. This relaxation is important for flattening paper that is out of shape because of folds creases etc. But, there are some questions and doubts about humidifying in the right way: How to humidify without causing…
When we talk about wall paintings or mural paintings, most of us call them ‘frescoes’. This might not be technically correct for all the murals.Technically, if the painting is created ( or we can say that the colours are applied)…
This hundred year old temple needed an uplift. It had wall paintings that were not clearly visible due to layers of grime and there was also heavy flaking to make the condition worst. The temple authorities had already tried a…
What is sellotape? Sellotape is basically a brand of transparent, polypropylene-based, pressure-sensitive tape. But, this term is also used for any such pressure sensitive tape of any brand. Sellotape is generally used for joining, sealing, attaching and mending.The older…
We received the map in a folded form. It could not be unfolded as the folds were stuck with some adhesive and it was also torn in that area because of someone trying to unfold it earlier. There was some…
Reports and write-ups on “Conservation of a canvas paintings” generally skip or very slightly mention the problems (and their treatment) at the back of a canvas painting. We need to understand that back represents the health of the canvas support…
Introduction to Agarose gel Agarose is one of the two principal components of agar, and is purified from agar by removing agar’s other component, agaropectin. Chemistry – Agarose, the gelling fraction, is a neutral linear molecule essentially free of sulfates,…
An important record of an organization, in the form of a scrap book, was brought to our lab for treatment and preservation. The data was important and the originals need to be rescued from further deterioration. The pictures, maps and…
Old photographs are not just pictures showing some image, but, their anatomy, composition, texture and information written/printed/stamped etc. tell a lot more about the time, people, techniques of photography, its stability/instability with time and how it can be preserved or…
Conservation approach Collaboration between community, religious heads, management, historians and conservation scientists is a remarkable involvement for the sacred cause of Conservation and Preservation of wall paintings of Sri Harmandir Sahib Ji. The conservation approach has to deal with multiple…
A scrap book, which was extremely important for the archives, was brought to our lab for treatment and preservation. The data and photographs were important and these original records need to be rescued from further deterioration. The pictures, maps and…
Heritage and its conservation/preservation are both not very well understood by us. This is understandable, because, we lag behind in care and understanding of even more important and basic areas of life, like environment, waste-management, religion etc. In any case,…
Condition Assessment and Treatment Record A Life -size photograph print that came for treatment to our lab could not be taken inside immediately at its arrival, as it had live termite all over it. All the life stages of a…
Some objects and art work is priceless because of its historic or cultural value. It is wise to make a highly trained and educated conservator do it’s conservation with most expensive conservation grade material taking days and days of labour….
Many a times while treating certain artifacts, specially on paper, one might feel that certain old repairs or treatments might be kept as such. But, when we proceed with the treatment we find that it was better if everything added…
Another opportunity for budding conservators to understand and learn: Conservation scenario in India The basic material and techniques used in archival conservation The basic materials and techniques in oil painting (on canvas) conservation possible job and business prospects Queries can…
Its our experience that insects that damage books are mainly attacking spine. This is because the spine receives liberal amount of adhesive while book making. After eradicating all the various stages of insects thriving in the books, book conservators repair…
This black powdery sheet (!) is not burnt paper, but, paper eaten by fungus. Cellulolytic microorganisms are hiding nicely all around us and are much more destructively powerful than we can expect from the tiny spores. Storage enclosures that…
In paper conservation literature, there are many ways and materials advised to be used to remove foxing or at least lighten its scars. Here i am not going to suggest what to use, but would like to mention the importance…
That peculiar smell/odor when some old books are opened, might at times be associated with mold and foxing. We come across books with foxing that may have very strong odor. All old books have vellichor, but some have stronger musty…
We come across many different kind of problems associated with old black and white photographs. Fading, yellowing, redox blemishing, silver mirroring etc are some common problems with old photographs. These problems are generally due to the inherent causes or reasons…
All the conservation labs/workshops have mylar or melinex as the most commonly used material while treatment procedures as well as in packaging and safe storage or display etc. Such widely and frequently used material is known to all by these…
Info from the print Condition Assessment We received the map in a folded form. There was some adhesive residue visible on the outside. On opening of the very first fold we found that due to the application of some adhesive,…
Finally, all the books that came to our lab have been restored and given a kind of new life. They are going back to the library tomorrow morning. Following is a re-sharing of a summary of all the conservation processes…
Team Heritage Preservation Atelier had a challenging task of conservation of a set of books that could not be digitized by a library because of the extremely brittle pages and stuck up and deteriorated condition. We started with making a…
The drawing under study is made in 1868 (as evident from the signature) and the watermark mentions the paper manufacturing year to be 1866. ‘Watermarks’ are markings put into paper during its production, by making thinner or thicker layer of…
June 26, 2018 By Manit When we first saw the drawing on site, it appeared to be in a fairly good condition. Once it arrived in our conservation lab and we started a thorough diagnosis, there were a lot…
Case of a 150 year old engineering drawing
One of the miniature paintings we came across last month was showing some signs of biological degradation, but no active microbes were visible on the surface. This was unlike other miniature paintings of the same lot, which had visible mold…
When a conservator gets art works like the above miniature painting, it is not just the damages that interest him/her, it is also the history/mythology and story depicted in the painting that attracts the conservator. Story/history/mythology apart from the technique and…
Indian miniature paintings have various schools and technical differences, but most of them have thick paint layer and impasto effects. Thick paint layers tend to flake off under certain circumstances. This flaking can be very unstable/powdering off or more stable…
At the edge of a jungle, we found some ruins of a temple which was still functional in adjoining more recently constructed room. Initially when i visited the site in 2008, there was another structure right in the middle of…
(June 2017 These days we are working on a few blue-prints and blue-lines in our lab. Before starting any work, we tried to discuss the original material and technique used into making them, with our team.) Both these processes use…
Very often we have seen that old worn out paintings are pasted on thicker backing board or sheet. This initially looks good as the worn out or crushed paper or fabric looks much better as it acquires the smoothness and…
At times we find old sticky tape which leaves almost no adhesive on paper and does not make the paper brittle; instead, it makes its own plastic base brittle. Is this because of the adhesive chemistry itself or because of…
We have learned while specializing in the field of conservation of cultural property (more specifically art, in the present discussion), about the specific type of material that should be used while mounting a painting on paper. The technique also…
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