The Framers Forum

I have a bath mat (part of) to frame, that has the muddy paw prints of a recently deceased cat on it. I'm fine on the framing, but wondered if anyone could advise how to fix the paw pussy's paw prints ( bet that starts the jokes ) for posterity. I have some of Lions fixative spray, would that do ?

Thanks Ross.

I thought it would have been pawsterity. Would they need fixing?

I had some shower curtains to frame earlier in the year 1.4m x 1.4m two of them, horrible curtains and horrible job, if I close my eyes I can still see the candy stripes.

The prints are a bit faint, I thought the fixative might darken them and make them stand out a bit more as well as hopefully preserve them for PAWsterity (missed that one !).
Thanks Ross.

IMHO I would leave the prints as they are and not spray/fix.

I would frame with Tru-view Glass UVR to protect from the light with a spacer and stitch or tag to an acid free museum board.

I would advise to keep of out of direct sunlight to avoid fading and if going into a bathroom I would protect the back from damp/steam with a melinex or foil sheet or other water proof backing board.

Kind Regards
Mitreman

Good information mitreman. I will use that in my quote as an option. Think it will be too costly for the customer, but I will put all the technical reasons for these components and see what happens.

Many thanks

Ross

It would be difficult to say what might happen if a fixative spray is used. One possible problem could be the fibres in the pile sticking together, which might look really bad.

Unfortunately once it has been sprayed any unintended results may be impossible to reverse without removing the paw print too!

How about resin encapsulation?

We've got a paper weight, a dandelion clock encapsulated in resin - you don't get much more fragile than that and it's perfect - no idea how they do it .... or who does, might be worth a google?

Thats more good information NYAF and Robo. I am going to test the fixative on another similar mat first to see how that works. I'll let you know. The encapsulation idea sounds good, but maybe expensive ? I will definitely look into it though as I could see it being very useful for future work.

Many thanks guys

Ross.

If it was me I would look into using a fixative spray, but I would use Lascaux Fixativ. The acrylic resin it is made from is used to consolidate fragile and delaminating surfaces throughout many different conservation fields, and for many different applications. I would do the same and test first, but to be honest I think I would rather use this fixativ to bind the paw print to the fibres of the mat than leave it as is.

I do like Robo's idea of setting it in resin though

Thanks Richard.

I have tested with the Lascaux, it works well so I will go with that. Any sign of that recipe for the PVA based Rabbit skin glue ?

Thank you all

Ross.