Bubble wrap

Evangelia Kyriazi <evangelia_kyriazi [at] yahoo__gr> writes

>Cihat Uzun <objectconservation [at] yahoo__com> writes
>
>>We are considering temporarily packing our objects with bubble wrap
>>but we have to decide which bubblewrap we use (with paper or not). I
>>would like information about this and the properties of bubble wrap
>>used in packing historical objects.
>
>I am quite against bubble wrap. Some years ago, I was working on a
>brass object that had been wrapped in bubble wrap. The metal surface
>was covered by dots in the size of the plastic bubbles. It took
>weeks to clean it, as the bubbles and/or blue and/or green copper
>oxidation products kept re-appearing every day, even after the
>object was chemically cleaned and varnished. I would suggest you
>tried another solution. Here in Greece we say that nothing is more
>permanent than the temporary solutions. How about acid free tissue
>paper?

I can only agree--and fully--with Evangelia. I have seen ghost
traces of bubble wrap on many different metal surfaces, on varnished
paint surfaces and once even on a not very recently varnished
painting and on glass--naturally it depends how tight it the object
is packed, if the bubble touches surfaces, in which environment it
is stored, if it is wrapped all airtight or has air passing through
foldings of the wrap--the longer the object is stored in the wrap
the more likely it is likely that the bubble warp will leave traces.

It is assumed that this may stem from the hot sealing process of the
plastic sheeting. The bubbles are suspected as a consequence to
develop vapors gassing into the bubbles--and it may in part be these
vapours to provoke this effect, of course depending at least in part
the composition of the plastic sheeting.

It is a nice suggestion by Evangelia--why not just use acid free
tissue paper? But watch it when unwrapping the tissue paper with no
self-adhesive tape to hold together the tissue paper packing around
the object--but that's another story.

Hans-Christoph von Imhoff
Strada principale 30
CH 7603 Vicosoprano / GR
Switzerland
+41 81 834 0284
Fax: +41 81 834 0285
Skype:  xophero


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 22:51
                 Distributed: Wednesday, March 11, 2009
                       Message Id: cdl-22-51-006
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