Museum Preservation Recap

Terri asked that I provide a quick list of the materials I talked about during my super fast intro into mount making. I also think a quick recap would be useful. I zoomed through a lot of stuff, and likely forgot to tell you even more.

When making mounts or doing anything with the goal of preventive preservation, it is always a good idea to do the simplest things first. I've noticed that for beginners, there can be a tendency to over engineer mounts (I am totally guilty of this!). Your primary objective is to make sure that the object is well-supported while still making it visible. Ideally, the mount should be as unobtrusive as possible.

When you sit down to make a mount for an object, I find that it is best to start with a good analysis of the object's characteristics. For example: if it is a basket, is it twined or coiled (this will be one determination of how fragile it is)? What is it's condition? And most importantly are there any factors at play that can cause deterioration? Most of the time gravity is my biggest concern.  The use of muslin or foam "snakes" is usually enough to support most baskets and keep them from slumping or breaking over time.

If a more complex mount is needed, then the National Park Services Conserve-O-grams are an amazing resource. Often you don't need to invent a mount; someone else has already thought through the process for you.

The materials I showed you or talked about include:

Muslin

Orvus

Polyester fiberfill (cotton fluff)

Archival (food grade) gusseted bags

Tyvek

Volara

Archival Polyethylene

Backer Rod

"Blue Board" /AKA Archival corrugated board

Abaca Tissue

Buffered/Unbuffered Tissue

Hot Knife

More information can be found in this University of New Mexico publication and at the North Carolina Connecting to Collections Blog.

Free Museum Day

This Saturday is free museum day in Sacramento. The State Museum Collections Center will be hosting public tours all day. If you think you will miss our field trip on the 20th, this would be a great oportunty to see the State Parks' collection. The California Basket Collection is not part of this public tour, but you will still be able to see some incredible objects from the Railroad Museum, Sutter's Fort, and general Sacramento/California history.

I still strongly encourage you to make the Feb. 20th field trip if at all possible. That tour will be much more detailed (and more "behind the scenes") than the pubic one. Plus, you will get to learn about basket mount-making and conservation on the 20th.

Click here for a list of free museums.