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Re: Interleaving tissue
Hello Diana,
Only "Unbuffered" acid free tissue should be used with textiles. Buffered tissue with an alkaline reserve is not an appropriate material for the archival storage of textiles. Tissue used to wrap, pad, or interleave objects in storage should be monitored and replaced with some frequency. Environmental factors will lead to variables in the natural breakdown of the acid free tissue. It will eventually loose its neutral pH and turn towards acid. Some form of charting or tagging your storage to track when new tissue has re-housed objects should be part of your over all collections management and preventative conservation practices.
Slight yellowing is a good indication that the tissue is no longer acid free, as is brittleness with crinkling that does not smooth out. Also, if there is any discernible oder that the tissue has absorbed from the object or storage area. Then your tissue should definitely be replaced. There are many easy one step pH testing kits available, including pens. But the basic rule of thumb is to have an ever ongoing rotation schedule. Textiles within large collections should be re-housed a minimum of once a decade, and inspected for problems every other year.
Maybe you could set your inventory goals to focus on a particular group of objects within subcategories in the collections.
Good luck, I hope you have plenty of volunteers.
Best Regards, Elise
Elise Yvonne Rousseau, Principal Conservator
<x-tad-bigger>Art Conservation de Rigueur</x-tad-bigger>
577 - 14th Avenue, No. 2
San Francisco, CA 94118
Studio tel/fax (415)447-8402
www.ArtConservationDeRigueur.com
On May 24, 2007, at 9:19 AM, Diana Zlatanovski wrote:
Hello
I have a question about interleaving tissue. My institution has been in the habit of replacing tissue interleaved between textiles within a box or the tissue covering a rolled textile. The tissue is labeled with the date it was placed inside so we can track how old the tissue is and replace it accordingly. My question is, how necessary is that? If the tissue is in good condition is there a benefit to replacing it? Does buffered vs unbuffered make the difference? I assume the buffering may wear out after a certain amount of time.
I ask because we are very short staffed and I was hoping to make some headway on a long overdue inventory project this summer. In the past , the tissue was being replaced while inventorying which is quite time intensive and slows down the inventory a lot. So I am needing to choose between swapping out tissue or completing the inventory. I have been leaning towards not changing the tissue if it is in good condition but I want to make sure that is not an irresponsible decision.
Any thoughts?
Thanks,
Diana
<x-tad-smaller>*******************</x-tad-smaller>
<x-tad-smaller>Diana Zlatanovski</x-tad-smaller>
<x-tad-smaller>Assistant Curator </x-tad-smaller>
<x-tad-smaller>Helen Louise Allen Textile Collection</x-tad-smaller>
<x-tad-smaller>University of Wisconsin</x-tad-smaller>
<x-tad-smaller>1300 Linden Drive</x-tad-smaller>
<x-tad-smaller>Madison, WI 53706-1575</x-tad-smaller>
<x-tad-smaller>(608) 262-1162 </x-tad-smaller>
<x-tad-smaller>zlatanovski@xxxxxxxx</x-tad-smaller>