Workshop on pigment-toned paper pulp for infilling

"Using Pigment-toned Paper Pulp to Create Flawless Fills for Works
    of Art on Paper and Archival Material"
Smithsonian Libraries
Preservation Services Dept.
Landover MD 20785
9-11 September 2015

Registration Fee: $650 (materials and lunch included)
Enrolment limit: 8

This intensive three-day workshop is designed to teach paper and
library conservators how to fashion flawless paper fills--fills that
match the tone of the original artifact; are equal in thickness,
density, and surface characteristics of the original artifact; fills
that are adhered well to the original artifact; and yet are
nominally invasive and completely reversible.

About the Workshop: Combining lectures, demonstrations, and applied
practice, this workshop will cover two main topics: (1) the toning
of paper pulp using color-fast pigments and (2) the casting of
custom pulp fills using toned pulp and wet suction techniques.

About pigment-toned paper pulp:  Owing to the stability of ionic
bonding between cellulose fibers and selected colorants,
pigment-toned pulps are remarkably color- and light-fast.  They do
not bleed in water, and they retain color intensity even when
exposed to elevated light levels.  Unlike superficially-tinted
inserts that are toned with dyes, water colors, and acrylic paint
formulations, pigment-toned pulps are permanently colored.
Specialized processing imparts a cationic charge to the paper pulp,
and an anionic charge to the colorants.  When utilized as a system,
selected pigments are chemically bonded to the fibers. A significant
benefit of employing this technique is that there is no risk of
colorant leaching or transfer during the process, or in the event of
subsequent aqueous treatments.

About using paper pulp custom casting for loss compensation:
Traditional techniques for filling losses in paper rely on selecting
and modifying already existing paper samples, and attaching the
inserts to a substrate with a conservation-grade adhesive.
Typically, one finds that East Asian tissues, while long-fibered,
flexible, and light-weight, rarely match original Western artifacts
in structure and density.  Moreover, selecting compatible Western
fill papers is complicated by the great variety in physical
properties and visual characteristics.  This is challenging even
when the conservator has a huge stock of fill paper to choose from.
The great advantage of using paper pulp for loss compensation is
that the fill paper is custom-made to areas of loss.  Fiber types
such as cotton, flax, abaca, and kozo can be combined in various
formulations to achieve optimal physical characteristics and
properties for the fill paper.  The use of suction to cast fills
directly into the area of loss/skinning will be explored in depth.
With inexpensive, readily available materials, tools, and equipment,
along with a little bit of practice, an experienced paper
conservator will master this fun, time-efficient, and rewarding
technique of creating flawless paper pulp fills.

Participants are welcome and encouraged to bring their own paper
objects for practice.

Instructor: Margo McFarland-Rothschild

    Margo McFarland-Rothschild has been a paper conservator since
    1991.  Her undergraduate degree at Johns Hopkins University
    focused on the art history and the material science of art
    objects.  At New York University's Conservation Center she
    specialized in the conservation of works of art on paper under
    the mentorship of Margaret Holben Ellis, Konstanze Bachmann,
    Marjorie Shelley, and Dianne van der Reyden.

    Prior to establishing her own paper conservation and consulting
    practice in 2008, Margo worked in the Paper Conservation
    departments of the St. Louis Art Museum, the Art Institute of
    Chicago, the Library of Congress, the Metropolitan Museum of
    Art, and the Smithsonian Institution.  She has directed
    intensive paper pulp in-filling workshops for the Campbell
    Center for Historic Preservation Studies, the Midwest
    Conservation Association, and numerous private paper
    conservation labs throughout the US.

    In 2001, as a Fulbright Program Senior Scholar Awardee in the
    area of Museology, Margo taught advanced-level paper
    conservation techniques to museum and library conservators in
    Buenos Aires, Argentina.

For more information and registration:

    <URL:https://donate.sil.si.edu/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=Prsv-PigmentPaper>

Vanessa Haight Smith
Book Conservator
Head, Preservation Services Dept
Smithsonian Libraries
301-238-2089


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 29:1
                  Distributed: Saturday, May 23, 2015
                        Message Id: cdl-29-1-012
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