Mold on plaster

Teresa Moreno <tkmoreno [at] email__arizona__edu> writes

>I am working on cleaning a life sized, white plaster sculpture by
>George Segal that has mold growth in several areas.
> ...
>Are there any suggestions on other methods that can be used to treat
>the mold and clean the surface of the plaster sculpture without over
>cleaning?

I'm a paper conservator and have absolutely no experience working
with plaster, but thought I'd mention a couple of methods I've used
to reduce mould stains on paper in case they are possible
alternatives:

    Kneadable eraser--I've used small pieces of kneadable eraser
    (e.g. Windsor and Newton's white kneadable eraser) to lift more
    ingrained mould particles from paper surfaces where suction
    alone was not enough. Obviously this is only appropriate for
    fairly sound surfaces; it mightn't work for powdery plaster!

    Hiding stains using dry powdered pastels--there is a good
    article by Christine Smith in the AIC Book and Paper Group
    Annual (Vol 17 1998) about overpainting using dry pigments.
    (Available online at
    <URL:http://aic.stanford.edu/sg/bpg/annual/v17/bp17-15.html>).
    Again, this is not always an appropriate treatment, but can work
    quite well in some cases.

Alice Cannon
Paper Conservator
Conservation
State Library of Victoria
328 Swanston Street
Melbourne, Victoria 3000
+61 3 8664 7331
Fax: +61 3 9639 6559
+61 402 041 064


                                  ***
                  Conservation DistList Instance 20:49
                  Distributed: Friday, April 13, 2007
                       Message Id: cdl-20-49-004
                                  ***