charlottesville: week 6

final week.  good timing with everything, it's all wrapping up nicely.

the bath

the felt

DAY 1:
all of the heat set tissue is off the devil dogs poster and i'm almost finished mending it.  i also washed another one and it was quite satisfying to see the yellowish water run off of it.  it took two rinses, and now it's drying overnight between two very thick pads of felt.  this one will need a good deal of mending, but depending on how much time is left it might get a lining instead

DAY 2:
the poster we washed yesterday still has some wrinkles in it, so i wetted it down and put it back under the felt with some added weight from plexi.  i also started removing the heat set tissue on the second lined poster, and got about two thirds off.  no new ones finished, but definitely made progress with the last set.

DAY 3:
the presentation went well!  more work mending and removing the heat set tissue

DAY 4:

today we lined the "life in the u.s. navy" poster, the one that was given a bath on monday.  here are the steps (so i don't forget them):

1) position poster on a large sheet of mylar, wet down.  take care to make sure there are no wrinkles and all of the pieces line in properly, as the paper will continue to expand as it gets wet.  for this poster it was a bit tricky due to the many pieces that had been torn or were completely detached..

2) position a sheet of japanese tissue (weight depends on the paper) on another oversize sheet of mylar, coat with a layer of thinned wheat starch paste (about the consistency of whipping cream) starting from the center and fanning out.  make sure to get out any wrinkles or bubbles that appear

3) apply paste to the poster, again working out from the center and removing wrinkles and bubbles.  a soft brush works alright for this, but a roller works particularly well to get out wrinkles

4) pick up the mylar+tissue (it helps to have another set of hands) and carefully lay it on top of the poster+mylar, making sure that the whole poster is covered by the tissue and there are no large air bubbles.  once down, work out any small air bubbles with a bone folder, although be careful near areas that are detached because they will sometimes move as paste is pushed out

5) remove the top layer of mylar, then cover the mylar+poster+tissue with reemay and blotters, put weight on top (plexi and bricks) and let it sit to dry for a little while (we waited about half an hour)

6) take off weights and blotters and replace with gortex 

DAY 5:

finished the masking tape adhesive removal, checked on the lining (still a bit damp) and wrapped up the remaining mends - all finished before lunch!  also went with eliza to instal some books in a new exhibit at the art museum, and she let me strap one down with mylar (they're pretty sturdy books, otherwise a polyethylene plastic would've been used).  it went by so fast, but was really the perfect amount of time for the number of posters and how much work was needed for each.