Storing puppets

James Hay <james.hay [at] civilisations__ca>, posting for Martha Segal
writes

>    We are presently reviewing storage options for a collection of
>    puppets made of polyurethane foam. One option would be to pack
>    them in sealed bags with ageless, an oxygen scavenger.  Marvel
>    seal or any opaque bags and films are unacceptable. The
>    curatorial and collections staff would like to have the puppets
>    visible. We would like to hear from colleagues who have similar
>    collections or colleagues who have had experience using
>    transparent high moisture and oxygen barrier film or bags.  Has
>    anyone tried ESCAL tm, available from Conservation By Design
>    Limited?   Does anyone know of a Canadian or American Supplier?

The Canadian Conservation Institute packaged some foam based puppets
(Sam the watchman, and Muffy the mouse from "Today's Special", I
believe) in Marvelseal with Ageless for a small puppet museum in
Toronto about ten years ago.  You might contact David Grattan for
more information. (I don't know what became of the collection, I
think the puppet museum was lost in a round of financial cut-backs.)
At the time I saw shiny neatly wrapped boxes, I remember wondering
what state the contents were in.

Keepsafe Systems offers Ageless & RP oxygen scavengers, and a number
of transparent barrier films including Escal. We supply to
conservators across North America. Our new web site will be up soon,
until then a limited amount of product information is available at:
<URL:http://www.interlog.com/~keepsafe/>   Our new catalogues are
now available by snail mail.

Jerry Shiner
Keepsafe Systems &
Forever Yours Bridal Gown Preservation
Toronto, Ontario

                                  ***
                  Conservation DistList Instance 13:1
                 Distributed: Wednesday, June 16, 1999
                        Message Id: cdl-13-1-004
                                  ***