Re: textile fading card

[Tom Klaas <Tak1129@xxxxxxx>]

Dear Ms. Schwender,

This is Tom Klaas from Testfabrics, Inc.

I am not a conservator but there are some wool lightfastness test materials that might possibly be what you are referring to. 

There are AATCC blue wool lightfastness test materials. There were originally 8 but currently there are only 4 available, L 2, L 4, L 5, and L 6 with standards of fading for L 2 and L 4. These are used in AATCC colorfastness to light (AATCC test method 16) and related test methods in many industries worldwide. These are available through Testfabrics, Inc. (email: testfabric@xxxxxxx; www.testfabrics.com) The L 2,4,5,6 materials are 50 cm x 75 cm pieces of dyed wool with different lightfastness qualities. 

There is also a related but somewhat different European version that has 8 dyed wool strips, each about 1 cm wide and approx. 4 cm long, all mounted neatly together on a small white card. These are also distributed by Testfabrics, Inc. (it is EMPA 830) and used in ISO 105 BO1, Colorfastness to Light (title may be a little different, I am not in the office to read the title page).

There may be some other products out there and hopefully someone else on the list will be able to help further. There may even be some literature concerning the use of the above or at least someone with some experience in using them for similar applications.

If I can be of any further help, please let me know.

Good luck.

Tom Klaas