Time flies… the last blog update about the wool coat was April 30thof 2010!
Since then, a significant part of the garment’s conservation treatment was completed. The coat is now clean, dry and thoroughly documented!
About 15 artifact accession numbers correspond to untreated textiles recovered from theMonitor. They were all taken out of the climate-controlled wet storage about 2 months ago to begin treatments.
For documentation, I started looking at the textile fibers under a microscope and was happily surprised to find out that many of these pieces are silk (or silk mixed with cotton)!!
The treatment (documentation and cleaning) of two gun tool heads began a few weeks ago.
I just wanted to share pictures of our new lab companions in “active duty”. So here is a shot of the bristle gun sponge as well as an x-ray:
Both sides of the carriages are composed of 4 to 6 pieces of wood riveted together with 7 long wrought iron rods. For long term preservation of the pieces, we are considering removing the iron and replacing it with an inert (yet strong) material. This will avoid the possible generation of acid at the metal/wood interface induced by corrosion and therefore assure longevity to the wood.
Anyhow, in order to remove the rods, we needed to assess their condition inside the wood. So Gary and I spent two days last week x-raying the wooden sides of the port carriage.
During the past couple of weeks, Gary built a custom anode system for the port gun carriage frame. He also built a frame to vertically support the exterior sides of the carriage and secure anodes next to the remainder of the carriage.
We hooked up everything and are looking forward to see electricity working its magic by gently removing more concretion. The chloride level will also be monitored monthly and the solution will be changed when the chloride level reaches a plateau.
You must belogged into post a comment.