Sculpy

Just when you think you might grow up to be an expert one day.....A
colleague has hit me with a question I can't fully answer. He works
in paleontological preparation, especially of vertebrate fossil
exhibits. He is under some pressure to get several new mounts up
soon. He called because he has found out that another museum faced
with similar pressures opted not to go through the tedium of
moulding, casting, gap-filling, nature-faking, etc. Instead, they
used Sculpy and simply sculptured the missing parts, then baked the
sculpture and attached it to the real skeleton. My colleague is
intrigued by the ease and speed, but nervous about the long-term
characteristics of the stuff. I have never used it, though I have
seen it listed in art-supply catalogues. He is calling it a
thermoplastic, but I'm not sure that it is or that he's using the
term correctly. I am having no luck tracking down anything on it.
Any senior expert gurus out there who have worked with the stuff and
can comment on its composition, characteristics, and aging? Many
thanks.

Sally Shelton
Director, Collections Care and Conservation
San Diego Natural History Museum
P.O. Box 1390
San Diego, California  92112
619-232-3821
Fax: 619-232-0248

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 9:38
                Distributed: Thursday, November 2, 1995
                        Message Id: cdl-9-38-018
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