Guitar

Liliana Bustos <lilphoto [at] yahoo__com> writes

>The object is an electric guitar that belonged to a rock musician
>famous in Argentina. It has drawings made in different colour
>markers, and the markers can be erased if you touch the drawing. The
>thing is that I would like to mark or to set in a permanent way
>those drawings, and I want to know how to do it and what material
>should I use for that purpose. The guitar would not be played as an
>instrument, but kept as collection object. So, it would be touched
>not played, and I want to preserve the drawings.

My opinion on this will probably not please you.  Any treatment at
all would most likely be completely irreversible and therefore not
advisable.  If the drawings are sealed or consolidated in some way,
and the material used were to yellow or deteriorate in any way, it
could never be removed without completely destroying the drawings
(even if a solvent and application procedure could be found that
would not smear or dissolve the inks!). Furthermore, many marker
inks are notoriously light sensitive, meaning that they will
probably fade irretrievably with time.

My advise would be to document all marks and drawings as thoroughly
as possible with traditional photography and digitally.  Then, if
possible, preserve the guitar in a custom made case that would
exclude oxygen and UV light and hold humidity steady, and also
prevent any handling (accidental or intentional).  If it is
essential to have a model that can be handled, I suggest a replica
to which digitally-copied applique transparencies  of the original
drawings are applied. Good luck with this project,

Linda S. Roundhill
Art and Antiquities Conservation, L.L.C.
18121 157th Ave NE
Woodinville, WA 98072
425-481-0720


                                  ***
                  Conservation DistList Instance 19:13
                 Distributed: Friday, September 2, 2005
                       Message Id: cdl-19-13-012
                                  ***