Flaky board leaving bits

Get help and framing advice from the framing community
Post Reply
User avatar
Rainbow
Posts: 891
Joined: Tue 23 Jun, 2015 8:51 am
Location: See my name, I'm somewhere over it
Organisation: Picture sales and framing
Interests: varied

Flaky board leaving bits

Post by Rainbow »

I recently did a job that was fine when I sent it out but it’s just been brought back to me with some bits floating around inside the glass. When I opened it up, I was horrified to see bits all over the reverse of the mountboard, so much that I had to vacuum it rather than just pick the bits off. When I studied the job, I can see that the art has been bonded to what I now realise is very soft and flaky board. I’ve picked potentially stray bits off the border with some tweezers but I’m concerned that it will keep flaking off. I’m not sure if I should seal the board round the edges, which is 2mm thick. If so, what would I use to seal it?
JFeig
Posts: 1285
Joined: Thu 23 Sep, 2004 8:31 pm
Location: Detroit, Michigan USA
Organisation: minoxy, LLC
Interests: non-fiction knowledge
Contact:

Re: Flaky board leaving bits

Post by JFeig »

Are you saying the the art was mounted to a sub-straight by another person (possibly the customer)?

If so, you have to tell the customer that customer supplied items are "as is" and not warranted.
Jerome Feig CPF®
http://www.minoxy.com
User avatar
Rainbow
Posts: 891
Joined: Tue 23 Jun, 2015 8:51 am
Location: See my name, I'm somewhere over it
Organisation: Picture sales and framing
Interests: varied

Re: Flaky board leaving bits

Post by Rainbow »

Yes, that's right, although I'm pretty sure not by the customer. It's quite an old piece of art, I think done by somebody in the family long ago.

I think I'm going to have to seal it because even though I de-flaked it earlier, I can see little tufts have started springing out again. I've got some fray-stop and I'm wondering if that would be suitable. I agree about telling the customer about the problem but I'd like to try and find a solution if possible.
Not your average framer
Posts: 11013
Joined: Sat 25 Mar, 2006 8:40 pm
Location: Devon, U.K.
Organisation: The Dartmoor Gallery
Interests: Lost causes, saving and restoring old things, learning something every day
Location: Glorious Devon

Re: Flaky board leaving bits

Post by Not your average framer »

It may be a type of board called straw board, which was manufactured as part of the wartime economy measures during WW1. I've seen plenty of artworks backed with this stuff over the years, but I have not encountered any significant less of flaking as you have described.. Attempting to seal the rear of the board is not the best thing to do, just sealing the rear surface will not solve the problem.

This sort of problem is likely to be present throughout the entire thickness of the board. Ideally the remains of this board should be removed from the artwork by a conservator, but this is not only likely to be financially prohibitive, but because this sort of board is always extremely acidic the paper of the artwork may have become very weak and unstable, due to acid migration. Personally, I would not be in any great hurry to seal, or impregnate this board with anything whatsoever, because you cannot be certain of the outcome and any undesirable outcome is very unlikely to be possible to later reverse. This is probably more of a damage limitation exercise that a meaningful restoration possibility.

My first thought was to dry mount a piece of mountboard onto the reverse of this board, but after thinking this through I'm worried about the effects of the heat creating tensions within the board and artwork sandwich and possible damage to the artwork. So I'm thinking of containing these flaky bits in situ, by stick a piece of adhesive mountboard to the rear of the artwork and straw board sandwich and taping around the edges with a small overlap onto the very edge at the front of the artwork and a larger overlap at the rear of the self adhesive board to keep any loose flakes contained and unable to escape to anywhere to cause a future problem. If possible this should be using a tape with a water based adhesive to facilitate reversibility.
Mark Lacey

“Life is short. Art long. Opportunity is fleeting. Experience treacherous. Judgement difficult.”
― Geoffrey Chaucer
User avatar
Rainbow
Posts: 891
Joined: Tue 23 Jun, 2015 8:51 am
Location: See my name, I'm somewhere over it
Organisation: Picture sales and framing
Interests: varied

Re: Flaky board leaving bits

Post by Rainbow »

Thanks Mark. I should have been clearer and said that the artwork does have a backing, it's just the edges that the fibres are coming from (see attached drawing). I've looked up strawboard but I think the fibres are softer than strawboard - they're more fluffy and very soft. I'm dubious about sealing for the reason you mentioned, so using some tape with a water-based adhesive does seem a better solution. Many thanks.
Screen Shot 2019-10-12 at 12.22.49.png
Post Reply