Zig pens

Lately the Tennessee State Museum has been using black "Zig" brand
pigment numbering pens. For non-porous artifacts, the number is
isolated between two layers of Beva. For costumes and textiles, the
number is written on a tag that is sewn to the item. We want to
begin using archival soft Tyvek as the material for the
textile/costume tags, instead of unbleached cotton tape and did some
tests with the pens. It turns out the supposedly waterproof Zig
pens' ink visibly runs on contact with cold tap water both on Tyvek
and on the cotton tape, even if it is left to "cure" for several
days. Has anyone found a good, really waterproof archival pen/ink
that can be used, or an alternate solution?

Thank you,
Candace Adelson
Tennessee State Museum
615-741-2692


                                  ***
                  Conservation DistList Instance 23:29
                Distributed: Thursday, February 11, 2010
                       Message Id: cdl-23-29-027
                                  ***