Washi lasts one thousand years
Tatiana Ginsberg is doing wonderful field work among traditional papermakers and dyers of Japan. Enjoy her
report.
Hanji lasts one thousand years
Korean hand made paper is now imported for use in conservation. The Hanji from Fides International is distinguished in many ways. Only the white bark of the Cham Dak is used and only natural Hwang Chok Kyu sizing is used. The We Bal sheet forming motion is on two axis producing a cross grain. Finally the sheets are pounded to compact and smooth the sheet. (website under construction)
A report on Hanji qualities for use in conservation is co authored by Minah Song and Jesse Munn of the Library of Congress.
***“let the artifact tell its own story”
FotB subscribes to the above dictum of Nancy Kraft, Preservation Librarian at the University of Iowa Libraries. With this single guidepost one can navigate the controversies and disputations of the presenters on cleaning of works of art at the AIC meeting in Portland.
Sometimes cleaning is needed to reveal meaning and sometimes prevention of cleaning is needed to reveal meaning. But be careful, meaning shifts continually, the artifact changes continually and the conservation specification itself, in a culture context at a specific moment in time, is transient.