Cleaning oils and acrylics

[Not your average framer]

Does anyone know a sure-fire way to tell if you are dealing with an oil or acryilic, before you choose you method of cleaning?

I test a small area first to see if anything bad happens, but it does not necessarily tell you very much other than nothing bad happened.

[Pete.]

I start with soap ( Vulpex ) on anything and then progress steadily as required through the various chemicals until I find that the muck's come off. I do not differentiate. They're dirty paintings, end of.

[Not your average framer]

Hi Pete,

It's Mark Lacey. If possible I try clean un-varnished acrylics with Vulpex diluted in water as the first option, rather than white spirit. Not that I've experienced anything bad using white spirit on acrylics, but if water will do it, why use anything more agressive.

[Not your average framer]

The paintings which I am cleaning have been involved in a fire. The gesso finish on many of the frames has blistered and it is very difficult to tell whether some finishes were originally gold or silver.

Fortunately some are clearly identified as acrylics. Certain of those which are acrylics have been signed in pencil which is another cause for concern when cleaning. All have been totally blackened, but amazingly appear to have survived their ordeal. Should I treat these any differently to normal or could they react in unexpected ways? So far the ones I have cleaned have been o.k. and they are being cleaned at the owners risk, but some of worst are yet to be done.

Some canvases include areas of light colour with only a thin application of paint. Should I clean the back with vulpex and risk some of dissolved soot penetrating the canvas? What are the risks of and dissolved soot showing through these lighter areas? Any tips would be gratefully received.

[Framerpicture]

I think its very brave of you to take on a picture cleaning job when you seem a bit unsure of what your doing.... do they ever go wrong? I offer a cleaning service for oils and watercolours but have never been brave enough to do it myself!!

I was under the impression that most oils were cleaned by removing the old layer of varnish( if there is one) and replacing it with another when any necessary restoration is completed.

[Not your average framer]

Hi Framerpicture,

I don't know about being brave, I'm cleaning these at the owner's own risk and the insurance company knows they don't have to pay if I don't succeed, other framers who also work for the same company don't want to do it. (Maybe I'm just stupid to take it on). I've already returned about one third of these pictures without any signs of their ordeal at all, but it's still getting scarry, this was a terrible fire, the damage shows it and some of the most worrying are yet to be done. Ahead of me are also some autographed items for partial cleaning only. I think it's too scarry to clean the actual signatures. I'm spending time evaluating how I do each one in detail at every stage, since I don't know how the heat may have changed the material substance of each picture.

I have been cleaning all sorts of art since about 2001 and some minor repair work too. I used to hand colour antique prints for my earlier business and serveral local dealers and gradually branched out from this.

I have the good fortune of being mentored by a retired friend who used to supply me with work as a trade customer and was a good friend too! He and his brother taught me most of what I know about bookbinding, paper restoration and hand colouring antique prints. He was an antiquarian bookdealer who specialised in very rare early theological books, antique prints and documents. Much of my training was from him and his brother in law, who had been a bookbinder and restorer for very many years and also worked for the same business.

Originally I was a design engineer working mainly in the electronics, automotive and aerospace industries, until I found myself un-employed at a bad time for engineering. This was when my friend encouraged me to re-train and work for him as a bookbinder & restorer. Later I was offered and took advantage of various short-term design egineering contracts and with the proceeds of this work bought a secondhand books and prints shop in Newton Abbot.

At the time I was well and truly hooked on antique prints which I used to clean, hand-colour, mount and sell. After a while the business ran into trouble and eventually was closed. I then went to back to short term design engineering and after a few jobs I ended up with part of the Nortel group of companies. They persuaded me to become a permanent member of staff, just in time to see the entire group go bust. This resulted in about 4,500 permanent members of staff and a futher 2,000 contract staff losing their jobs.

The govenment stepped in with some serious funding for fast track re-training and I chose picture framing. I was given a six month training placement at what was then the very busy Triton Galleries framing workshop, (which is sadly now down sizing so the site can be sold, unfortunately it makes good business sense to do it, but many of my friends from there are now having to find other work). My training funding also paid for loads of picture framing books and various appropiate training courses, etc.

The training organisation expected me to be employed at Triton, but this never happened and I was stuck on the Job seekers allowance working from home as what they call a "business case". Eventually they pushed me into signing off and starting my own business for real with the aid of money saved up in the job centre in a "back to work bonus fund", £300 from the "advisors descretion fund" and the working tax credit with the new deal 50 plus element for the first year. When I signed off the Job Seekers allowance I was also told me that I was now elegible for upto £1,500 of extra training if I took it within the next two years.

Slowly with a lot of miracles along the way, (I believe in them), "The Dartmoor Gallery" in Bovey Tracey, Devon came into existance. Within our first year I had a heart attack (just over two years ago), somehow both I and the business are still here. During the following year, I spend my £1,500 of extra training grant on five days with Pete Bingham. He said I only needed two days, but I said I wanted to spend it all with him. I am very glad I did too! I asked him questions about just about everything and that five days has transformed the way I run my business.

I've had an angioplasty procedure for my heart, I take a large number of tablets each day to keep my heart working and now can no longer work as fast as I would like, but now I have two part time assistants to help me. With my background, plus extra training and timely advise when I need it from the various friends who have gone out of their way to teach and mentor me, this also includes Pete Bingham, members of this forum and friends from Triton Galleries (very much thanks to all), I have successfully tackled quite a significant amount of this work.

However this job has got me worried, the company who supply me with this work told me that the temperature in the house reached 1200 degrees centigrade. When I opened up these pictures I found the glass in two had bowed with the heat. Almost all of the frames have been burnt or blistered by the heat and yet somehow most of the pictures appear to be worth cleaning.

I am seriously scarred about how I clean each one. I am about half way through thirty four pictures and about to start the most scarry ones and yes I am worried, that's why I'm picking other peoples brains as much as possible. The company which supplies the work is impressed, which looks promising for the future even if I can't save them all.

Before starting the business I practiced on large numbers of pictures from charity shops and auctions and sold the finished work too. When the business started, I had to take the plunge and do it for actual customers and locally I now have a good reputation. I have a very comprehensive stock of cleaning materials, chemicals and anything else which I think might be needed. Has it been a bit scarry? Yes, and at times like this it still is.

I think this explains where I'm at and how I got there. Health-wise and career-wise, I should by now completely finished. This all came out of a chance which I never expected after all that has happened to me. I love what I am now doing and have never enjoyed anything so much in all my previous career.

BTW, Most of those on this forum have been doing it much longer than me and my debt of gratitude to those who contribute to the forum is very considerable. Thanks to all.

[Roboframer]

Wow! That's one hell of a story and thanks for sharing it Mark!

Good luck.

I was under the impression that most oils were cleaned by removing the old layer of varnish( if there is one) and replacing it with another when any necessary restoration is completed.

Basic cleaning and removal and replacement of varnish are two different jobs, both of which I sub out - to a local and superb restorer, I have watched her painstaking process' in awe, but only for so long - the fumes are too much!

[Merlin]

Wow Mark. Thankyou for that.
Heart rendering to say the least.. Good luck mate.

[Framerpicture]

Not your average framer is a very apt name!
Well done and Good Luck

Will

[Not your average framer]

Some of the miracles I refered to were pretty amazing too! When I signed off from the Job Seekers Allowance, I had a business plan. It had been approved by the Job centre, who had arranged my grants and support. One very important part was that the Working Tax Credit which would follow on from me signing off was going to be back dated for 3 months.

However, nothing happens until you sign-off and claim it all. So I signed off bought a Cassesse manual underpinner and claimed £300 towards it from the Job Centre's "Adviser's Discretion Fund". Having bought the underpinner and claimed the £300, I had burnt my bridges and from then on I could not go back. Then my award letter from the "Working Tax Credit" arrived without the back dated 3 months payment. As it turned out, not being a tax payer while on the Job Seekers meant I did not qualify.

I now no longer had the money I needed for everything else. The business plan was dead! I carried on doing the things I was doing as before working for minimal profit, but still qualifying for and getting the working tax credit.

My wife decided one evening that we needed some fresh air and a walk, so we went to Totnes and wandered around looking in the closed shop windows and eating chips from the local chippy. While doing so we discovered that "Western Arts" in Totnes was closing down. While we were chatting and looking in the window, the owner's son joined in our conversation and as he got to know our situation he invited me to come and see what was for sale. I said we were broke, but he said "Well come anyway"

Lots of other poeple were interested and they had money. I blew our last £400 on a Keencut Ultimat which I soon found had problems, but Keencut came to the rescue with a new set of bearings and then it was fine. I went back a little later and bought a box of eight broken Columbus, Kaha and Red devil point guns for £20. They all were broken, however by swapping bits one of them was sort of usable, but still broken.

A friend from our church thought he could fix them. I said fix as many as you can for £20. He came back next week with seven working guns and one which you can no longer get points for, which he could not fix.

Gradually as I got together more money I would go and buy something else. Lots of people were still looking, but no one was buying except me. Eventually as I bought things, my original hobby equipment was no longer needed, so I advertised it on Radio Devon's Friday "4 o'clock Market" an artist called Mike phoned up and came around and bought the lot. The money paid for more equipment and so it went on. Mike kept in contact to see how we were doing. He now works for me two days a week.

By the end of the year or so that the builders were converting the Western Arts building, we had bought all the most important equipment and they made us a very generous offer to take everything else before their new tenants could move in. We borrowed the money and now had over six hundred sheets of mostly Tru-Vue mountboard, 400 lengths of moulding, some glass, some backing board, a morso, Keencut's Ultimat + Oval 6 + System 4000 and everything we could need to get started.

After eventually deciding that we could not afford a shop, the right one came along. I soon found I did not know anything about running on framing business and was helped out by another ex-Triton Galleries framer who spend time telling me what to do and allowed me to copy his pricing chart. If that's not friendship, I'll like to know what is!

We very slowly struggled into life, but now there is Mike who bought my old hobby equipment (he works two days per week), Carla who works mostly one day a week, my wife who laces the needlework jobs and Myself.

We are a small business in a small edge of Dartmoor town and do very little else except framing. The premises are far too small for what we have there. I'm still learning not to hang-on to all the left overs and when I stop try to save them I may one day have a nice tidy shop. It is quite cluttered, but people have decided we are a nice old fashioned shop, just like shops used to be.

If anyone is passing, pop in and say hello.
Cheers,
Mark