Charcoal drawings and pastels

Esther L. Koppel <elm2294 [at] louisiana__edu> writes

>I am working with a collection of student artwork. The collection is
>archival in nature, but also used for examples and instruction in
>classes on a regular basis. Most of the works were done in charcoal,
>pastel or conte and were never "fixed". Any suggestions on ways to
>house works that tend to shed their powdery media but will be used
>regularly? Is there a way to "fix" the media without risking damage
>to the items?

Not an answer of how to "fix" but maybe a help. Recently I had a few
pastels that were not fixed and could not be fixed. They were easily
smudged and had been in damaged in shipping.

After repairs, I matted them in  double mats using corrugated acid
free as the inner mat, turned to accept bits of pastel that might be
loosed from the art.

The space between the top mat and the inner mat with flutes vertical
at the bottom accepts any loose bits that might fall and hides them
below the mat hopefully and not on the edge of the top mat. The
inner mat is recessed about 1/8 inch or so, or to say another way is
smaller than the top mat so it is not seen in normal viewing.

Franklin Shores
Conservator in Private Practice
Philadelphia, PA


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 17:72
                   Distributed: Friday, June 4, 2004
                       Message Id: cdl-17-72-004
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