Hi,
My name is Ian, a new member.
I will post an intro soon and samples of my Posters, including my beloved Ealing posters.
Basically I lived in Ealing in the late 80’s, started collecting movie posters then moved to the US 1995, got married (stopped collecting). But now kids are in their 20’s, started collecting again - but Ealing posters are now way too expensive so …..
I started collecting Mexican posters with the goal of preserving them.
Has anybody had success with:-
Alkalization: Application of an alkaline agent which reacts with acids in the paper and leaves in paper an alkaline reserve capable of reacting with acids in the future. (Because it enables paper to resist changes in pH, an alkaline reserve is sometimes called a buffer, and the treatment buffering).
I want to preserve my Mexican posters as cheaply as possible. I am thinking of just putting the posters in an Alkaline bath, drying them, then placing 2 inside a clear acid free bag with acid free paper (or card) between them.
I am currently experimenting with some damaged poster fragments, so far:-
I raised PH of normal tap water to 8.5 using Calcium hydroxide (I read that some restorers use regular tap water, so trying that first).
I placed the poster fragment in the ‘bath’ for 20 minutes, agitating every 5 minutes or so.
I did not do any other bathing.
I placed the poster on a glass window (to assist drying) for 10 minutes, I saw a lady (youtube) doing similar using a mirror and that seemed to assist in drying.
I then placed the fragment between some packing paper (I am looking at other absorbent papers). I put two pieces of flat wood around the paper and applied some heavy books for weight (basic sandwich).
I changed the paper after 10 mins, 30 mins then left overnight.
Results:-
I didn’t notice a lot of difference between the fragment I treated and sample left untreated:-
The paper does seem less brittle but also seems to have lost its basic ‘shine’.
I will continue the experiments, but wondered if anyone has had success with basic Alkaline bathing and drying/flattening for archiving.
Regards
Ian