Tuesday, December 15, 2009 This carved wooden pipe from the Czech Slovak Museum was covered in mud and dust. Since it has so many small crevices it was very hard to clean. I used dampened swabs to remove the dirt. It is in three pieces and combined it took 6 hours to clean. Below isContinue reading “Czech Pipe”
Category Archives: Object conservation
Suitcase Saga Part 4: Conclusion
Thursday, December 12, 2009 After lots of fussing and fiddling the suitcase is finally done. I removed all the rust from the exterior and cleaned up the metal. The interior was trickier. I removed the paper lining and lined it with a heavy japanese paper and wheat starch paste. Underneath the paper the metal ofContinue reading “Suitcase Saga Part 4: Conclusion”
Steve Stenstrom Workshop on Shellac Finishes
Tuesday, November 10, 2009 Steve Stenstrom returned to the UI to teach us about Shellac. We learned about the properties of Shellac and the different ways to use it. Steve brought us pieces of wood to work with and we all got some experience “french polishing” which consists of a cotton pad soaked in ShellacContinue reading “Steve Stenstrom Workshop on Shellac Finishes”
Storage is as important as treatment
Wednesday, October 7, 2009 The objects we have received since the flood span a wide range of materials. Since we couldn’t work on everything immediately, one of the first things we had to address was proper storage. The wooden objects were set out to dry as were the baskets and miscellaneous plastic, ceramic, glass items. The metalsContinue reading “Storage is as important as treatment”
inventory fun
Thursday, September 24, 2009 Keeping order in the aftermath of a disaster is not easy to do. When the flood hit Cedar Rapids in 2008 there was very little time to get everything out of the museums and things that weren’t rescued until after they had sustained flood damage were at times so unrecognizable itContinue reading “inventory fun”
Blue Boxes
Wednesday, September 9, 2009 One of our volunteers has taken on the project of building custom boxes for objects to be returned to the African American Museum in November. Beth has been teaching Kallie Holt how to make boxes from the sturdy blue corrugated board we use routinely in the conservation lab. In addition to making themContinue reading “Blue Boxes”
Volunteer Kallie Making a Difference
Friday, July 10, 2009 We have a new volunteer! Kallie Holt, a Junior at the University of Iowa has volunteered to work 8 hours a week here in the Conservation Lab. The first project I gave her was the cleaning of a collection of small miscellaneous items from the African American Museum. These objects rangeContinue reading “Volunteer Kallie Making a Difference”
Record Cleaning
Wednesday, June 10, 2009 Caitlin and I discussed the timeline for returning the LPs and 45s to the Czech Museum yesterday, and we decided to start forging ahead with the final wash of the albums. We are using the same method we used right after the flood, when there was still a ton of mudContinue reading “Record Cleaning”
A Typical Day of Flood Recovery Work
Tuesday, June 9, 2009 I checked in with the conservation lab staff this morning. I happened to have my camera with me and thought you might like to have a snapshot of a typical day. This is the activity I captured at 10AM this morning. While the ledger from the Johnson County Historical Society driesContinue reading “A Typical Day of Flood Recovery Work”
Suitcase Saga Part 3
Friday, May 15, 2009 For the exposed metal I started with a medium grain steel wool to loosen the more rusted areas. I continued to vacuum the loose particles. The next step will be using a double beveled knife to try to remove some of the more stubborn areas of active corrosion. When the metalContinue reading “Suitcase Saga Part 3”