V&A Archives - Page 2 of 3

March 20, 2012March 27, 2024

Prints by Four Artists – Creating guards

Yesterday was my last Monday at the V&A until May – this is due to a series of varied events including some bank holidays, a two week trip to Scotland (next week!) and a two week trip to Norfolk (in about a month) and after that I will be back at the V&A.

I had hoped to get my book on four artists to a stage where it could be sewn at least, if not finished. Unfortunately, being plagued by illness this week, it was all I could do to get there and do a few hours work. Prior to getting to work I had already forgotten my tool kit and managed to fill my tank up with petrol, then realise I had also forgotten my wallet – so the day started well!

Anyway, I did manage to guard all the central sections. The first and last sections are connected to the cover by the first two leaves being pasted down to the front cover and the last two to the back cover, so these two sections will need a little more complex guarding techniques, which I will tackle on my return in May.

Adding the guards
Leaving them to dry
Guarded and unguarded
Guarded and unguarded

January 19, 2012January 27, 2023

Making Wheat Starch Paste

This is a post I have been meaning to do for a while, both for me to refer to in the future and for anyone interested, and have finally got my act together after a nudge from Sago On Tuesdays! I hope that I may be able to add to it in the future as I learn new techniques. At the moment I only have three or four to list, but they are good ones that I like.

Paste at the V&A

The V&A use shofu paste powder for their paste, it is one of the most refined pastes and is a good tackiness and consistency. It is also not necessary to let it stand like with common paste, it can be cooked immediately.

– Mix 27g shofu powder to 200ml water in a beaker and stir together
– Place the beaker on a hot plate on a medium heat
– Stir for about 15 mins or until the liquid starts to go clear and thicker
– Turn up the heat and continue to stir until the paste is thick enough and stays on the stirrer.
– Cover the beaker with a damp cloth and place in a sink of cold water to cool
(have a cup of tea)
– Once cool transfer the now jelly like paste to a clean beaker
– Fill with water until the paste is all cover and recover with a damp cloth
– This can now be left for a few days on the side (not fridge)
– When using it, take how much you need and sieve it three times
– Do not return served past to the beaker

In this case and all cases where paste is cooked on a hot plate, the paste must be on the heat for at least 35 mins and constantly stirred. This is so that the enzymes can open up and create the tackiness.

Paste at Camberwell College of Arts

Paste at Camberwell is unfortunately the slowest process, but very authentic in terms of how it was made once upon a time. It makes quite a sticky dense paste, with little liquid, which is good for many purposes.

– Mix 1 part paste to 4 parts water and leave to stand for 20minutes
– Poor the mix into the top part of a double boiler (above), and fill the lower part with water
– Set to a high heat and constantly stir until mixture becomes like custard
– Lower the heat and continue to stir until it has been cooked for about 35 mins, it should be clear like silicone
– Leave to cool and then sieve 2/3 times

Paste at the The National Arhives

The National Archives also use shofu paste because of its good qualities, and unlike anywhere else I have been, they also use a saucier, which removes the need of a stirrer! Their paste is also at 20% concentration, which I find a little too liquid, but it is made for everyone, so is what most people there require.

Using a saucier
– Mix 20g of shofu powder with 100/150ml distiller water (dry/wet)
– Put the mixture in the saucier and set to level 4 (out of 5)
– Allow to cook for 30 mins
– Sieve 2/3 times
– Keep in the fridge when not in use

Using a microwave
– Mix 20g of shofu powder with 150ml of water in a beaker
– Microwave at short intervals as below, stirring in the middle
60s/20s/20s
– Sieve 2/3 times

January 17, 2012March 27, 2024

Mondays at the V&A

Well today at the V&A has been great today as always. I started today making paste, which I quite often do – it’s a very relaxing start to the week, as I sit under the widow sill and look out into the sun blushed V&A old building whilst stirring the paste. It’s just about finished and ready to cool down as the time comes for morning tea – couldn’t be more perfect timing!

Once tea and paste was done, Anne and I went to the National Art Library to fill up the boxes with books that I was working on last week and at the same time came across a project for me to start working on over the next few weeks.

This book we selected is called Prints from Four Artists, and is a collection of prints by four different artists. It is a large book covered in green parchment, which is something I have not seen before, and Anne tells me is quite rare. The book needs thorough cleaning throughout, which I have started with a chemical sponge – this is going to take me some time! Then I will move on to paper repairs, and finally onto the structure of the book. It needs resewing onto its cords and then rebacking, and some parchment repairs on the front, which I may do with toned parchment, or tissue. The sections are quite thick, so it will be an interesting one to sew back together.

All in all a very interesting book to work on with some fantastic prints throughout and I’m looking forward to getting to work on it.

P1020386a — The first page prior to cleaning

P1020394a — The first page after cleaning

January 11, 2012March 27, 2024

Mondays at the V&A

As mentioned in my previous post on the Eagle comics, Monday was the first day back at the V&A, and thankfully I was given the nice straight forward task of box making to start the year. The V&A boxes are not like those we worked on at MODA, which we made from scratch, these are almost entirely made for you before you start!

Having measured the books, the measurements are then put into the box making machine, and the boxes are cut flat as the image shows. The first step is then to put the rivets onto the edges, these are so that the box can be tied shut. The museum has an amazing machine that presses the rivets all together with a foot peddle – its so simple!

Then the string goes in which will tie onto the rivets, and then the two layers of boxes are adhered together with EVA and pressed to dry.

They are then folded and ready for the books! As I said, a super nice start to the year, and very therapeutic! Once I had done these, I was then doing some minor cover repairs on a couple of books that are going to be part of the Golden Spider Silk exhibition – I can’t say I enjoyed looking at these books, though I could appreciate the excellent hand painted drawings, however being of spiders, they did give me the shudders!

January 11, 2012April 10, 2024

On Eagle’s Wings

Today I was back at the V&A for the first time in the New Year – it’s always nice to return after a break and find familiar faces, so it was a happy return!

The day was also boosted by seeing On Eagle’s Wings exhibition at the museum. This is an exhibition on comic books that myself and a collegue have been working on for the last month or so, each of us doing paper repairs on the covers and display spreads of the comics. Having been involved since the start of the conservation work, it was really nice to see the exhibition come to fruition.

Due to copyright issues, I was not able to get any close-ups of the comics themselves, but in the images below you can see the general layout. It is located outside the Twentieth Century gallery and takes up four of the cabinets there. One of the cabinets is specifically dedicated to the girls comics, which I worked a lot on. Girl is the counterpart to Eagle, which is the key comic book for the exhibitions. The latter was an extremely popular boys comic whereas Girl was one of the leading girl’s comic books, including such items as Wendy & Jinx (a detective duo) and how to do flower arrangements.

I was pleased to see that of those comics that I had worked on, I was not able to see the paper repairs, which is a good sign!

November 28, 2011March 27, 2024

Mondays at the V&A – Comic love

As you may know, my Mondays at the moment are spent at the Victoria & Albert Museum in Kensington, working on a variety of conservation projects and helping where possible.

Today this meant continuing conservation work on a selection of comics for a forthcoming exhibition in 2012, though unfortunately it’s not currently listed on their What’s On list. I had started work on these comics a couple of weeks back, but this week saw a more progressive leap forward and will hopefully a move onto the displays next week.

The collection I was working on today were all girls comics from the mid 20th Century, including ones like Mandy, Lady P, Princess Tina and my personal favourite – Girl, the female version of Eagle, which includes items such as how to arrange dried flowers!

P1010386a — 'Girl' requiring some repair work around the edges

The repairs we are doing are paper repairs to the covers and any spreads that might be shown in the exhibitions. Due to the quality of the paper, there are often several tears around the edges of the sheets, and a substantial amount of damage to the spines. Today I also came across a couple of rusty staples that had to be removed, de-rusted and returned to the comics. I have some pictures below:

P1010387a — A common type of tear along the centre where the comic would have been folded in half

P1010388a — A (hopefully) fairly invisible repair along the spine, where it was deteriorating

P1010390a — De-rusted staple ready to go back into the comic

P1010391a — The staple back in the comic

I’m quite looking forward to seeing the exhibition and the fruits of my labour!!