The Framers Forum

Good morning all, Spring is (nearly) here so time to come out hibernation...boy, have we been busy down the burrow while it's been a cold and wet Winter.
A couple of works have come my way to reframe. They are original pencil drawings on (aged) cartridge that have some dreaded foxing spots, thankfully on clear areas. The spots are no more than 4-5mm in diameter.
Any one know what a good ratio of bleach to water would right to start with?
I was also wondering if a mix of non-bleach oxy cleaner (nappy wash) would be better?
Regards to all...

The automatic knee jerk response is, “Hie thee to a conservator!”, but that’s not what I do very frequently.

For those spotty blemishes, we use a 10% (by volume) mixture of household chlorine bleach and 90% water. Using a cotton pad (the kind you get in cosmetics section of pharmacy) lightly blot the foxed area with the damp pad. Don’t rub the area; you might scuff the paper. The foxing should begin to clear very quickly. Then damp the area again with plain water. Blot dry and leave it for a few hours.

You may be left with a slightly stained area, but at least you will have killed the mold.

I don’t know what is in the “miracle oxy-clean” stuff, but I suspect it isn’t chlorine, so I can’t hazard a guess whether that would work or not.

I went on a course in London years ago with a paper conservator and she regularly used hydrogen peroxide to bleach foxing, it was diluted with distilled water, can't remember how much but I think it was less than 5% and then washed off with more distilled water

various good articles via google, and an interesting article here: http://206.180.235.133/sg/bpg/pcc/13_foxing.pdf

Thanks for responses. Good advice as usual - when you work mainly on your own there often isn't anyone in the 'shop to turn to.
Interesting subject this and I'm going to look into it. In the meantime I've spoken with the customer and we've agreed to a clean-up and reframe. I really feel that she shouldn't be a guinea pig in this, especially as it turns out that it's her own work from way back when. I might hunt up an old junk shop print and experiment. According to that foxing pdf link, fungoids aren't necessarily fungoids...