Soot on ceramics

Recently Canberra has suffered catastrophic bushfire damage. To give
an idea of the scope, over 500 houses have been lost in a community
of approximately 350,000 people, not forgetting that 4 lives were
also lost.

The Objects Lab at the Australian War Memorial has been looking at
various treatments for soot damage, both for use in our lab and in
terms of general advice we can give to the community.

There seems to be little information on the treatment of ceramics. I
presume that glazed ceramics would tend to resist the permanent
deposition of soot, but what about unglazed/ more porous material?

Would either poulticing with a zeolite paste or soaking the material
in a detergent solution (possibly with ethanol added), much in the
manner of desalination of ceramics be feasible and/or effective?

Alayne Alvis
Large Technology Conservator
Australian War Memorial


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 16:47
                 Distributed: Friday, February 7, 2003
                       Message Id: cdl-16-47-011
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