|
I am contemplating cleaning a very soiled Chinese silk tapestry. The piece was originally mounted as a scroll and one face of the tapestry is much more soiled than the other. The piece has some small areas of dark brown silk that are extremely sensitive to all kinds of polar solvents including water and so I am thinking about doing a type of modified contact cleaning on a suction table. My question is, which side of the textile should be facing up during the cleaning? I intend to place either blotters or cotton flannel on both sides of the dampened textile while its under suction. I wonder is the suction pulling down onto the lower blotter stronger than the capillary action of the faster drying upper blotter? Has anyone encountered this type of problem? I would really like to avoid pulling any of the soiling onto the cleaner side of the textile.
My instinct is to put the soiled side up.
The soiling in this silk tapestry is impervious to non-polar solvents. And of course, its the face of the textile that is so badly soiled.
Joanne Hackett
Associate Textile Conservator
Indianapolis Museum of Art
|