AIC's 51st Annual Meeting

Conservation is a constantly evolving field that utilizes materials, skills, and analyses from multiple fields and disciplines. Recently, different variations of nanocellulose have been introduced to paper conservation to aid in tear repair and other stabilization treatment due to its high tensile strength, purity, and overall good aging characteristics. This study builds on these previous studies and showcases how nanocellulose can be utilized to create colored fills with different surface textures or surface gloss that can then be applied to fills for photographs. Matching fill materials with the original color and texture of photographs can be difficult due the variety of gloss and tonal range of the photographs. Nanocellulose presents a unique opportunity to help solve this difficulty since the nanocellulose pulp can be colored and cast before it is applied to the photograph. The goal of this study is to find the best way to color, cast and apply fills to different photographic processes. This was accomplished through a variety of trials using different coloring agents including watercolors, Carriage House Pigments and acrylics. These colorants were mixed with the nanocellulose suspension in combination with water and/or ethanol. Photographs using different types of lighting as well as observations were used to assess the color, gloss, and color distribution of each trial. Promising results were seen with both QOR watercolors and acrylics as long as a 'sizing' agent of methylcellulose was added before the sheet was cast. Different adhesives and application processes were also assessed.