As my work over the past few years with the posters in the Icograda Archive is coming to an almost-but-not-quite-there-yet -end, I am starting to embark upon another long-term project working with the archive of James Gardner, who is best known for his exhibition work. This process started at the end of last year with an initial condition check of the materials.

The Gardner archive contains within it a large number of plans and drawings on transparent papers. As I was going through the materials I came to the realisation that I do not have much knowledge or experience with them. Needless to say, I was extremely keen to learn more about their structure, conservation treatments and behaviour in general. After reading a few articles online and getting increasingly confused about the variety of information on offer, to my joy I discovered a course I could attend to get some hands-on experience on the subject.

On the 13th and 14th of October 2014 I attended a workshop organised by International Academic Projects at the London Metropolitan Archives. I was successful in obtaining a bursary towards the cost of the course from the Clothworkers’ Foundation in addition to being supported by the Design Archives. I thought I would write up my notes for a blog entry to those interested!

The two-day workshop was taught by Hildegard Homburger, who has a long history of working with transparent papers. She is a fantastic teacher – sharing her successes alongside her failures and ‘experiments’ with transparent papers over the years. The attending group of eight people was very international in that The United States, Finland, Norway, Ireland and the UK were represented. On top of the workshop’s learning material, it was fascinating to discover and discuss the different resources archives from elsewhere have and how they operate.

The two intense but utterly enjoyable days covered everything from the different types of transparent paper to their history and structure. From the hands-on elements of the workshop, the first was the chance to practice the different tear repair methods for transparent paper. The approach Hildegard has adapted as best practice is to use isinglass with a fibrous Japanese tissue, leaving the fibers of the repair tissue ‘loose’ around the the tear area, adhering only along the tear. Isinglass is a dried substance obtained from the swim bladders of sturgeons and in book and paper conservation, this substance is mixed with water to create a type of repair ‘glue’. This method requires a very specific and quick application of the isinglass and the tissue. Experimenting with it for the first time was challenging; I practiced on several of the tears on the sample paper with varying degrees of success. Granted, my tissue strips were not as neat or thin as the expert’s, but this was a great opportunity to try and try again and to have someone to ask about the process as and when things went wrong.

Alongside isinglass, we also tested out Klucel G. Wheat starch and methyl cellulose can also be used but these have a higher moisture content, therefore taking a longer time to dry, increasing the risk of cockling around the tear area. Using heat-set tissue obviously does not create a bond between the fibers inside the tear like brushing isinglass or Klucel G does and might give the repair a more ‘abrupt’ appearance, but for its ease of use I think this method should not be discounted entirely.

Mending and repairing of transparent papers should take place before humidification and flattening. This way the formation of visible gaps between the tears can be minimised, as the paper expands and contracts in contact with moisture. Lining can be applied by use of heat-set tissue (not with impregnated papers however) but the removal of this could create a nightmare for future conservators. We had an opportunity to line a piece after repairs by using the wet method, which was a highly valuable experience to have.

We had an interesting general discussion about items that have a large number of small tears along all edges. Repairing these tears individually would take a very long time and our ‘debate’ was focused on the ethics of simply cutting the torn edges off with a scalpel. The reasoning for doing seemed commonsensical; how many climates has the tracing paper already gone through in its lifetime? Can you argue that its current dimensions are its original ones? A possible decision to not remove original non-conservation quality edging tapes was also considered, as they would help keep the edges of the item from tearing in the future.

Old non-conservation quality repair tapes should, however, be removed. Any adhesive residues left behind by the carrier can be easily removed with ethyl acetate – this does not leave tidemarks on transparent papers due to their dense structure. As a more mechanical approach, the crepe rubber also works well.

For me the most fascinating part of the workshop was learning about the complex humidification, drying and flattening procedures. In contact with moisture, transparent papers are extremely mobile – they can expand and contract up to 2cm during a humidification process. When repairing, buckling can very easily – and extremely obviously – form around the repair if the object is not humidified and flattened afterwards following the right procedure. A flattening time of a minimum of four weeks is advised using the hard-soft sandwich method taught by Hildegard. We also had the chance to dye repair papers and line a piece by using the wet method, as well as discuss the best practice for mounting of transparent papers.

When looking at the different types of transparent papers, it is quite difficult to identify tracing papers from vegetable parchment. I was particularly interested in the easy-to-identify diazotypes with their one-side lacquer layer, as the Gardner collection has a number of examples of this type of paper. From the selection of the samples I have come across, it is hard to believe these papers were originally blue. They turn yellow and various shades of brown with oxidisation and can begin to let out alkaline off-gassing. If the sensitised layer is removed, the paper will become blue again even after discolouring.

As I mentioned before, prior to attending the course I read a selection of papers online – written mainly in the 1990s. Comparing the methods tested and used by the authors to the methods taught by Hildegard are, at times, staggeringly different. During the workshop we also discussed how in the 1970s/1980s the removal of the impregnation of transparent papers with a solvent bath was commonly practiced. This changes the appearance of the paper from transparent to opaque and in 2014, this seems a shocking treatment to perform.

One of the most valuable things of the two day workshop, without taking into account the obviously rich content, was the way in which Hildegard teaches. She ran through all possible scenarios in a very clear and concise manner, without pushing for a one-and-only correct approach – letting us go through the motions ourselves to figure out which approach made the most sense. I would imagine that in the end, a lot of the us partaking in the workshop came to the realisation that the methods adapted by Hildegard are, in fact, the best for transparent papers – even if the vegetarian me might feel a little strange about it, it’s isinglass all the way!

Now where are those rolls of Gardner’s plans and drawings….

I am somewhat alarmed that I have not written anything for the blog since early January. I was, in fact, frantically trying to figure out where entries (surely at least one post!) had disappeared but alas, there has not been any. So, to ease into the blog writing routine – or the attempt at one – I thought I would start with an entry about what you can find at the backs of objects in an archive and how delightful these can be. I have written about another discovery I made a few years ago on the verso of a Macdonald Gill poster, so do have a look at that post too if the subject interests you!

Our Archives Cataloguer Ellen Taylor has been busy working her way through the documents in the Icograda Archive. She stumbled upon some rather surprising divider boards used in-between the documents. On one side they look like ‘your regular archival pieces’ with hand-written notes in pen…

… but on the other they are pieces of advertisement boards for Clayton’s Orange Squash!

We thought we might find some more puzzle pieces to try and put together the original advertisements, but so far the only one resembling a whole is the image below: although these two pieces do not fit together perfectly, I was very happy about this discovery. I suppose one man/woman’s verso is another one’s recto and vice versa!

Out of interest I carried out a quick internet search with the phrase ‘Clayton’s Orange Squash’ to attempt to find out specific dates for these particular adverts. The first (and only relevant) hit to the search term was a link to one of our black and white photographs on Jisc Media Hub. The above pieces of Clayton’s colour advertisements were used in the 1960s as dividers inside the documentation held in the Icograda Archive, one of the 20 holdings we look after. Willy de Majo, whose archive we also hold, was the founding president of Icograda. He designed packaging for Clayton’s and a collection of black and white photographs of his designs exist in the Design Council Archive… It’s these neat connections between our holdings that make working in the Design Archives so brilliant!

In previous posts about the conservation treatments I am able to ‘perform’ here in the archives, I have mainly been mentioning surface cleaning and basic tear repairs. In the absence of a fully equipped conservation studio with a fume-hood and necessary chemicals on the premises, I am unable to really even consider any kind of aqueous methods of conservation should these be needed for the materials we have.

This week however, I did get to dig out my water spray as our Deputy Curator Lesley Whitworth came to me with a handful of scrunched up documents from the ICSID (International Council of Societies of Industrial Design) archive in desperate need of flattening. The documents were discovered during the holiday period in December when Lesley and our administrator Debbie Hickmott were carrying out re-organisation work on some of our collections, particularly the ICSID archive.

One of the documents I thought I would use as a ‘sample’ is the one in the image above, a letter dated 22 August 1968 and dictated by Josine des Cressonniéres – the Secretary General of ICSID at the time. It is a carbon copy of the original document, which is why it remains unsigned. The contents consist of a snippet of the organisation’s co-operation with UNESCO. The document was very badly creased inside an envelope with other materials in it. To have any hope of flattening it, aqueous methods needed to be adopted.

The very first thing to do when considering any kind of aqueous treatment is to test the fugitivity of all inks on the individual item. The test is carried out by a method called spot testing. This is a procedure in which a very small ‘spot’ of water is placed onto an area of the ink undergoing the testing and by adding water onto the same area until the paper fibres get more and more saturated.

During this process, keeping an eagle eye on the behaviour of the test area after each dot of water is added is of great importance – naturally no more water should be added if the ink starts to ‘run’. Placing a piece of blotter on top of the area tested is used to see if any of the inks transfer onto it marking the ink fugitive and unsuitable for aqueous methods without protection.

 

In this instance, there were no ink fugitivity problems with the copy text. I went ahead and sprayed a very fine mist of water from a distance (ie not directly onto the paper surface) and watched the document as it relaxed under the moisture. Observing paper relaxing is one of my favourite things to witness in conservation – I can almost hear the document let out a sigh of relief as the fibres go from a very tense, scrunched up state to a more relaxed, flatter state.

As you can see from the image above, this particular document flattened out very successfully with no problems encountered.

Another ‘sample piece’ I thought I would share with you is a photocopy of a letter dated 28th of April 1977, relating to ICSID’s Working Group on Disaster Relief. Being a photocopy, my initial thought about the originally typed text not being fugitive was right. However, this document also has an area of hand-written text in ink near the bottom right corner.

For this piece, the whole right edge was very creased from top to bottom and needed flattening to aid the safe legibility of the letter. It was stored in an envelope with other materials and had ended up folding in on itself as other papers were put in with it, like the first document.

After making sure the typed text was not going to ‘melt away’ from the paper when moistened, I spot tested the hand-written ink as I had my doubts about it being stable….

…. and stable it wasn’t! As you can see from the piece of blotter on the right in the image below, even after one drop of water, the ink became very fugitive. This of course ruled out a straight forward ‘misting’ of the piece and since I do not have access to the required materials for protecting the ink during the procedure, I put on my improvisation hat and carried on.

What I ended up doing to avoid the ink from running was to place that particular corner inside a Melinex ‘slip’ for protection. I then sprayed the rest of the document with a very fine mist of water to relax it. To be able to relax the corner area with the ink writing, I wetted a small piece of blotter and ‘patted’ the areas around the ink to relax the crease in the vulnerable corner. This method resulted in acceptable flattening of the entire edge of the document with no smudging of the ink when left pressed overnight.

In going back to the research materials I looked through in regards to aqueous methods within paper conservation, I dug out an article entitled “Aqueous Conservation Treatment of 20th Century Papers Containing Water-Sensitive Inks and Dyes” by Agnes Blüher, Anna Haberditzl and Tanja Wimmer in the Restaurator (Issue 20, 1999, pp181-197). The article can be found and downloaded online. Aside from the treatment methods the authors used on the materials from the archive of Heidelberg University in Germany, I picked up on a point to home in on: “there is no such thing as ‘mass conservation'”. Mass treatments can sometimes be expected of archival materials due to their nature; especially items from the 20th Century like the materials we have here at the Design Archives. To highlight that each item has to be treated on an individual basis despite being a part of a ‘bundle’ and the amount of time conservation of each document can take, I quote from the article: “… it has to be realised that the restoration needed a lot of time: 86 hours for the tape removal alone, 86 hours for the tests and the fixation, and 61 hours for the aqueous treatment and repairs. 20 hours have to be added for preparatory works, encapsulation, and documentation, so that the total time is about 250 hours for 122 sheets, that means, approximately, two hours per sheet.”

Quite a sobering thought to finish on!

For the past few months I have been kept busy continuing to go through the materials in the James Gardner archive – discovering some beautiful things in the process! I am slowly but surely making my way through it, compiling initial condition assessments and notes on content. This assessment period has flagged up conservation issues for some of the materials to be challenging as Gardner loved to work by collaging many types of materials together. While this has given his visions and illustrations a different kind of depth and beauty, the mix of materials can potentially become a real conservation headache. Interestingly, he continued to work in this manner all the way into the 1990s, where a computer might have become a companion to many designers. I am sure I will be writing more about his archive as time goes on – I can not wait to start planning for the preservation, re-housing and digitisation of the materials.

As a kind of follow-up to my blog entry about rusty paperclips, I wanted to flag up an issue over the nuisance that is the ageing rubber band. Our Archives Cataloguer Ellen Taylor has been working with the Icograda archive, cataloguing some of the materials. On a few separate occasions, she has come to me with stack of these documents ‘bound together’ with a rubber band that has completely lost its elasticity over time and started to disintegrate.

As you can hopefully see from the images, the disintegrating rubber band can really ‘glue’ itself onto the surface of the documents it holds together causing not only staining but if not removed correctly, abrasion to the surface of the paper. So far, I have found the brittle rubbery material relatively quick and easy to remove but major discolouration is always left behind on the surface of the original. Lesson? Archives and rubber bands do not sit well together!

The rubber band as an invention was patented in 1845 by an Englishman called Stephen Perry and according to one website, the U.S. Post Office is the largest consumers of rubber bands in the world. I also read that clay can be used as a filler in the manufacturing – which would certainly explain the disintegration! I fear I could spend hours (if not days), delving deeper into the world of rubber bands but the chemistry enthusiast in me has to be silenced for now!

Yet again, it has been a busy summer in the Archives – we have had some major building works done this past month or so. In the middle of the slightly chaotic goings on, we have been beavering on with our usual duties. The end of the building works is in sight just in time for the start of term and a new load of students joining the University. Hopefully a lot of them will also find their way to see us!

In a blog entry I wrote back in May, I hinted that plans taking place to celebrate Icograda‘s 50th Anniversary this year. I am very happy to announce that for the past few months, we have been busy working in collaboration with Professor Lawrence Zeegen (Dean of Design at the London College of Communication) and designer Tara Hanrahan (think/do) on an exhibition entitled ‘Posters Selected from the Icograda Archive’, celebrating not only 50 years of Icograda but also 50 years of LCC at Elephant and Castle. This project is now on its last push before the show opens – the exhibition will be held at the London College of Communication between 31st of August and 13th of September. In a nutshell, it comprises of 45 posters from the Icograda Archive selected by 15 of today’s leading design practitioners. You can read more about the project in our news item.

Since the final selections were made by the designers, I was kept occupied with preparing them for the exhibition. I also roped in a fellow Camberwell Conservation graduate Kristy Woodruffe to help me with the task – working in pairs is always much more fun! We were up against it to get the conservation work done before the builders took over the Archive. Generally the selections made were in good condition but quite a few had accumulated visible surface dirt and tears over time. As you can imagine, simply surface cleaning a large format poster takes a long time and we had 45 of them to get through in a relatively short space of time – no easy task!

The posters were then packaged for transportation to the LCC, exit forms were signed and they were off en route to London. On Wednesday this week I travelled up to the LCC to help the exhibition team with the framing of the materials. Due to the size of the posters, this really did require as many hands as possible! It was great to see how it was all coming together so nicely – it is really fantastic to see them on their way to a whole new audience!

It has been great to work in collaboration with another institute on a sizable project like this where the approach to looking at the poster materials has been different to anything that has been done with them before. A fair few pieces from the collection have been exhibited in the past in conjunction with other events but it is safe to say we have never had an experience of over a baker’s dozen of designers descending on us for two very hectic days of selection process – this in itself was fascinating to observe.

To me personally, the process of the exhibition planning and realisation has been especially rewarding after spending so much time working so closely with the posters in cataloguing, digitising, re-housing and conserving them. Due to the large sizes of the original material causing handling difficulties, it presented a wonderful opportunity to test our catalogue with its digitised versions of the works on a demanding ‘audience’ – and it will be even more wonderful to go and see the original posters on the wall. Hopefully they will inspire people to come and use the Archive as a spring board for new adventures.

See also:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/35368374@N04/sets/72157635401936339/ 

http://newsevents.arts.ac.uk/event/posters-from-the-icograda-archive/

http://www.designweek.co.uk/whats-on/posters-from-the-past/3037020.article