Paraloid B72

Teresa Lanca <tlanca [at] bn__pt> writes

>I'm having problems with Paraloid B72 mixed with alcohol as a
>fixative for a blue pigment of a book of the 16th century. It seems
>that the pigment loses is natural brightness and turns opaque (it
>seems that have a white film upon the letters of the text). I don't
>know why this happens and what can I use as a substitute (perhaps
>hydroxy methylcellulose?)

I would like to suggest testing Klucel G (hydroxy propyl cellulose)
for this purpose. It has been used for consolidating pigments and
can be mixed in water or ethanol--usually about 2%
concentration--(or a mixture of both). According to previous
reports, Klucel G does not change colours of pigments, which was the
reason why I, personally, had used it to consolidate and fixate a
highly coloured object. There is an article on Klucel in one of The
Conservator issues, I think (sorry for not giving a full reference,
as I don't have the issues here with me).
Hopefully this is of some help,

Gali Beiner
Object Conservator
Israel Museum, Jerusalem


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 15:38
                Distributed: Tuesday, November 20, 2001
                       Message Id: cdl-15-38-004
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