I've got to frame a knackered but treasured vintage poster, and there are really bad blu-tack grease marks in the corners. The customer wants it in a window mount, but there is no way to cover all of the damaged areas with the mount. Framing is just going to make them more unsightly.
Is it possible to remove - or even lessen - aforesaid marks with a solvent such as lighter fluid? If yes, please can you give me some pointers on the technique used. (I've never needed to remove greasy marks before).
Thanks.
Advice Please! Removing Blu-Tack Greasy Marks
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Moglet
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Advice Please! Removing Blu-Tack Greasy Marks
........Áine JGF SGF FTB
.Briseann an dúchas trí shuiligh an chuit.
.Briseann an dúchas trí shuiligh an chuit.
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Dermot
You could try Heptain (You can get it from the likes of Lennox Chemicals) .......... but I would strongly advise that you consider given it to a paper conservator ...........Liz D’Arcy is in Rathnew in Wicklow and is very good.....you can get her on 0404 62921.........don’t expect her to have a quick turn around as she is always very busy and she is recovering just now from a bad fall she had on holidays....
Best regards
Dermot
Best regards
Dermot
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Moglet
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Hi Dermot!
Thanks for suggestion but alas, time is against me (needs to be done today). Don't think the customer would pay for the work either (I'd already suggested a "float mount" scheme that would "celebrate" (?!) the poster's survival despite the war wounds life has inflicted on it (interesting tatty edges, etc.), but they wouldn't go for it).
I will make a note of Liz' details for future. And you've given me a bit of a brainwave. Giant chinese corners might do the trick (it's a very big poster...)
Buíochas arís!
Thanks for suggestion but alas, time is against me (needs to be done today). Don't think the customer would pay for the work either (I'd already suggested a "float mount" scheme that would "celebrate" (?!) the poster's survival despite the war wounds life has inflicted on it (interesting tatty edges, etc.), but they wouldn't go for it).
I will make a note of Liz' details for future. And you've given me a bit of a brainwave. Giant chinese corners might do the trick (it's a very big poster...)
Buíochas arís!
........Áine JGF SGF FTB
.Briseann an dúchas trí shuiligh an chuit.
.Briseann an dúchas trí shuiligh an chuit.-
prospero
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- Location: Lincolnshire
I would be very vary about 'touching up' artwork. Unless you are an experienced restorer your job is to frame the picture to preserve it in the state it is in. Once you start doodling about you are taking on a huge responsibilty and things can rapidly go extremely pearshaped. A small blemish can become a big blemish very easily. Once upon a time I would occaisionally undertake restoration work. I never had any major disasters, but I learned enough to leave it to people who know what they are doing. Once fundamental mistake is to assume that a techinigue that works in one case will work in another. All paintings are different. A quick wipe over with turps will clean some oils very effectively. On another one it will dislodge chunks of paint.
A poster is basically an ephemeral item no matter what it's value. Any marks/creases/drawing pin holes are part of it's history and I would be inclined not to try to 'improve' it.
A sobering tale.....
Few years ago I had a nice oil in for reframing. The customer asked if I could clean it as it obviously had a heavy brown smoky film on it. This I did and got loads of the brown stuff off. But I got to a point where no more gunk was coming off and there were still brown streaks accross it.
Must be the varnish I thought and took it to a restorer friend of mine for a second opinion. He agreed with me that it was the varnish layer but although he tryed various solvents none would touch the varnish. Then I had a little scratch near the edge and found that that the varnish was not sticking very well to the paint and came away quite easily. I came to the conclusion that someone had varnished it with some species of water-based varnish - Ronseal or Yacht Varnish, which is why the streaks. I couldn't give that customer it back in the state it was in. Although I had got the muck off, all this had achieved was to make the streaky varnish more apparent. My only way forward was to carefully scrape the varnish off with a scalpel. In most of the surface this worked OK and I made fast progress, even if it was tedious work. But as I reached areas that had been painted thinnly, the varnish had sunk into the canvas weave and was very hard to scrape off. The painting was 36x24 but as time wore on it seemed to get bigger and bigger. I have no idea how long I actually worked on it. I used to pull it out the drawer and have a scratch at it whenever I had a half-hour to spare. Thats about as much as I could do in one sitting without loosing the will to live. I had that painting for just over six years and it was fortunate that the customer was a mate of a mate and was very patient. I did finish it sucessfully in the end with a bit of repainting here and there. Eventually I put it in it's new frame (which had been languishing it my storeroom during the same period) and it looked great. I didn't know what to charge the guy, but as he has a business making garden furniture I just charged him for the frame and took a nice bench in payment for the restoration. It all worked out fine in the end but I wouldn't want to do it again.
Another not quite so sobering tale......
You have all probably come across Victorian/Edwardian photos that were printed on white glass and coloured with oil paint. 'Opalines' I think is the generic term. A lady once brought me two, which were portraits of her grandparents. One day she thought grandad was looking a bit grubby so she tried giving him a quick polish (probably with a pan scourer). You guessed it: she rubbed all his paint off. Oil paint is not the best when it comes to sticking to glass. Anyhow, she asked if I could colour him in again. All that remained was the b/w photo image which was permanent and although detail was lacking I could at least make out the main features. She gave me the only photo (b/w) she had of him. A liitle 'box brownie' print of a liitle old man doing some gardening. He was about 90 when the photo was taken. So, armed with the photo and the untouched 'granny' picture fer reference I had a go and the result was quite good. I paid great attention to the ref photo and tryed to get the right complexion of the skin and the wrinkles on his face. In the end I was very pleased with my work....
When the lady came to pick it up she gazed at it intently. "Was anything wrong?" I asked..... She replied that I had made and excellent job of it, but maybe I had made him look just a little old. Then she informed me that they were her grandparent's wedding photos. "he was only 25" she said. It then dawned on me what the white blob was on his jacket. It was a carnation.
Those days people tended to go from childhood straight to middle age in terms of appearence, but I had to admit that no way could he be now taken for 25. Fortunately it was not a big job to give him a face lift.
There is a moral to this story. Wish I knew what it was.......
A poster is basically an ephemeral item no matter what it's value. Any marks/creases/drawing pin holes are part of it's history and I would be inclined not to try to 'improve' it.
A sobering tale.....
Few years ago I had a nice oil in for reframing. The customer asked if I could clean it as it obviously had a heavy brown smoky film on it. This I did and got loads of the brown stuff off. But I got to a point where no more gunk was coming off and there were still brown streaks accross it.
Must be the varnish I thought and took it to a restorer friend of mine for a second opinion. He agreed with me that it was the varnish layer but although he tryed various solvents none would touch the varnish. Then I had a little scratch near the edge and found that that the varnish was not sticking very well to the paint and came away quite easily. I came to the conclusion that someone had varnished it with some species of water-based varnish - Ronseal or Yacht Varnish, which is why the streaks. I couldn't give that customer it back in the state it was in. Although I had got the muck off, all this had achieved was to make the streaky varnish more apparent. My only way forward was to carefully scrape the varnish off with a scalpel. In most of the surface this worked OK and I made fast progress, even if it was tedious work. But as I reached areas that had been painted thinnly, the varnish had sunk into the canvas weave and was very hard to scrape off. The painting was 36x24 but as time wore on it seemed to get bigger and bigger. I have no idea how long I actually worked on it. I used to pull it out the drawer and have a scratch at it whenever I had a half-hour to spare. Thats about as much as I could do in one sitting without loosing the will to live. I had that painting for just over six years and it was fortunate that the customer was a mate of a mate and was very patient. I did finish it sucessfully in the end with a bit of repainting here and there. Eventually I put it in it's new frame (which had been languishing it my storeroom during the same period) and it looked great. I didn't know what to charge the guy, but as he has a business making garden furniture I just charged him for the frame and took a nice bench in payment for the restoration. It all worked out fine in the end but I wouldn't want to do it again.
Another not quite so sobering tale......
You have all probably come across Victorian/Edwardian photos that were printed on white glass and coloured with oil paint. 'Opalines' I think is the generic term. A lady once brought me two, which were portraits of her grandparents. One day she thought grandad was looking a bit grubby so she tried giving him a quick polish (probably with a pan scourer). You guessed it: she rubbed all his paint off. Oil paint is not the best when it comes to sticking to glass. Anyhow, she asked if I could colour him in again. All that remained was the b/w photo image which was permanent and although detail was lacking I could at least make out the main features. She gave me the only photo (b/w) she had of him. A liitle 'box brownie' print of a liitle old man doing some gardening. He was about 90 when the photo was taken. So, armed with the photo and the untouched 'granny' picture fer reference I had a go and the result was quite good. I paid great attention to the ref photo and tryed to get the right complexion of the skin and the wrinkles on his face. In the end I was very pleased with my work....
When the lady came to pick it up she gazed at it intently. "Was anything wrong?" I asked..... She replied that I had made and excellent job of it, but maybe I had made him look just a little old. Then she informed me that they were her grandparent's wedding photos. "he was only 25" she said. It then dawned on me what the white blob was on his jacket. It was a carnation.
Those days people tended to go from childhood straight to middle age in terms of appearence, but I had to admit that no way could he be now taken for 25. Fortunately it was not a big job to give him a face lift.
There is a moral to this story. Wish I knew what it was.......
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Moglet
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Moglet
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prospero
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Well the nun didn't actually have anything to do with the horse.
A customer of mine used to get really nice old watercolours from somewhere. One day he brought one of a nun which was relly superb work but unfortunately the old frame had woodworm in the back which had made holes in the painting. I couldn't restore the paper and they were really unsightly when I remounted it with the nice white barrier board beneath. So to disguise the holes I put a few dabs of watercolour on the barrier board to match the area of the painting around the worm holes. Result was that you had to look hard to see the holes.
You can't always repair damage, but you can minimise the visual impact.
The cracked horse was one of those strange paintings on the back of glass, which are always vunerable. It wasn't cracked when the customer took it out his car, but in the six feet or so that he had to walk to my door he managed to break it. The crack was quite clean but went right though the horse. Repair was impossible.
I told him to leave it with me and I would have think. When the two pieces were butted together the crack didn't really show on the horse, so I taped the two halves together along the edge. Then cut another piece of glass same size as the whole painting to fit on top, with a thin spacer around the edge. Taped the new top glass to the painting to give extra support. The only paint on the glass was the horse with a bit of grass at his feet. The rest was clear and the crack really showed on the clear part.
I couldn't hide it so I put a piece of ivory mountboard behind and painted a very pale green watercolour wash on it to make it look as though the horse was standing in a landscape. A hill in the background followed the line of the crack exactly and the rest was just pale colours loosley painted. No detail to speak of.
When it was all put together the crack wasn't noticable at all and it all blended together nicely.
I get the feeling sometimes that customers think framers have magic powers. I don't like to discourage that misconception.
A customer of mine used to get really nice old watercolours from somewhere. One day he brought one of a nun which was relly superb work but unfortunately the old frame had woodworm in the back which had made holes in the painting. I couldn't restore the paper and they were really unsightly when I remounted it with the nice white barrier board beneath. So to disguise the holes I put a few dabs of watercolour on the barrier board to match the area of the painting around the worm holes. Result was that you had to look hard to see the holes.
You can't always repair damage, but you can minimise the visual impact.
The cracked horse was one of those strange paintings on the back of glass, which are always vunerable. It wasn't cracked when the customer took it out his car, but in the six feet or so that he had to walk to my door he managed to break it. The crack was quite clean but went right though the horse. Repair was impossible.
I told him to leave it with me and I would have think. When the two pieces were butted together the crack didn't really show on the horse, so I taped the two halves together along the edge. Then cut another piece of glass same size as the whole painting to fit on top, with a thin spacer around the edge. Taped the new top glass to the painting to give extra support. The only paint on the glass was the horse with a bit of grass at his feet. The rest was clear and the crack really showed on the clear part.
I couldn't hide it so I put a piece of ivory mountboard behind and painted a very pale green watercolour wash on it to make it look as though the horse was standing in a landscape. A hill in the background followed the line of the crack exactly and the rest was just pale colours loosley painted. No detail to speak of.
When it was all put together the crack wasn't noticable at all and it all blended together nicely.
I get the feeling sometimes that customers think framers have magic powers. I don't like to discourage that misconception.