Consolidating chalkboard

Susan Russick <susan-russick<-a t->northwestern< . >edu> writes

>We are anticipating the accession of a green colored chalkboard
>(about 4 feet x 6 feet) featuring a multitude of economics equations
>in chalk by a Nobel laureate professor.  We would like to
>consolidate the chalk to retain the writing.  ...

Barbara Sommermeyer from the Hamburger Kunsthalle consolidated an
installation from Joseph Beuys, chalk drawing on a green board, a
few years ago and used methylcellulose (0.25%) with aerosols.  This
worked quite well.

I have treated within her lab an installation from Ross Sinclair at
the Hamburger Kunsthalle.  At that time we have used 1% gelatine by
a single aerosol application by well saturating the chalk drawing.
This worked also very well.  Within this project we needed quite a
strong adhesion for the chalk particles to the support, because the
installation is on view without any barrier.  The installation also
needed to be stored by folding the card board boxes face to face.
This is the reason why we used Gelatin instead of Methylcellulose.

Misting solvent based adhesives incorporates a sophisticated device
and health and safety set-ups.  Chalk drawings can be consolidated
very well with aqueous adhesive.  That's the reason why solvent
based adhesive systems were not chosen.  The aerosol application
seems to me to be the only way to treat chalk in a contactless
manner.  The chalk particles get saturated by the aerosol adhesive
mixture and dries with a slight increase of colour intensity.  The
mattness is kept.  Within my PhD work the installation of Ross
Sinclair and the colour properties are explained as a case study.
See the following literature:

    Sommermeyer, B.
    Consolidation of matte, powdery paint in modern art with the
    ultrasonic mister, in: Preprints of the 12th Triennial Meeting
    of the ICOM Committee for Conservation, Lyon,Poster Abstract,
    James and James Ltd., London (1999): 901.

    Pataki, A.
    Consolidation of white chalk with aerosols, in: ICOM, Committee
    for Conservation, 14th Triennial Meeting The Hague, Conference
    Papers, James and James Ltd, London (2005): 223-230.

    Pataki, A.
    Einflussgrsossen auf den Farbeindruck von pudernden Malschichten
    beim Konsolidieren mit Aerosolen, Dissertation Thesis,
    Wissenschaftlicher Bericht des Forschungszentrums Karlsruhe in
    der Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft 7168 (2006)

        <URL:http://bibliothek.fzk.de/zb/berichte/FZKA7168.pdf>

If you need any further information and empirical tips I am happy to
forward them.

Dr. Andrea Pataki-Hundt
Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Kunste Stuttgart
Diplom-Restaurator
Hohenstrasse 16
70736 Fellbach
+49 711 664638 14
+49 711 586453


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 28:2
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