The Framers Forum

Some months ago a customer bought in a "tile" of a babys hand which was made from icing sugar. No problem really, as it was a box frame, but it came back today and the mount that the tile was bonded to was stained. It looks like the glycerine from the icing has leeched out and traveled over the bonding agent onto the board. The tile was not very flat and touched the mount in one place wnd has made a big stain on the mount.

Clearly the icing needs to be sealed, but anyone any ideas on what to seal it with. Any cooks about??

I’ve read that polyurethane varnish can be used on bread for window displays. Might be worth investigating? I would guess the item would need to be 100% dry before varnishing.

I think how much you will be able to do something about it depends if the cast was made of sugar flower paste or normal fondant icing.

Sugar flower paste has gum traganth added to make the icing harden in time - fondant paste has glycerine added to keep it pliable. If fondant paste it may just keep seeping.

You don't say how old the item is either - it might improve if it's left to dry for much longer before reframing, though icing is hugely hygroscopic so there will always be an issue with atmospheric moisture. Did you put a silicon gel sachet in the frame ?

Sugarcrafters use gum arabic as a glaze - that might work if you paint it on the bottom- I wouldn't seal all over in case it yellows in time. As Geospectrum says, its doubtful polyurethane will adhere if the icing isn't dry and again may yellow.

The only alternative I can think is to use clear plastic as a barrier, but if it carries on seeping it will still make a sticky mess.
Louise

I would like to thank both Geo and Louise for their valuable input and sorry for not getting back earlier, but the customer got back to me yesterday!!

I asked him what type of icing it was and apparantly there are both types of icing in the cake and the confectioner did not know what type was where.

So.... we have decided to make a sink mount from foam core to embed the tile and fix it to the base behind the foamcore. The tile will be held into the sink mount with invisible nylon cord and the rear of the mountboard over the foam core will be heat-sealed to prevent any leaching into the back of the mountboard. Hopefully this will cure the problem.

Once again many thanks

Steve

I wouldn't expect icing to last more than a couple of years give or take. Sooner or later it is going to crumble away.
The only way you could preserve it longer is to encapsulate it in plastic resin.

Sorry Misterdiy,

I've only just seen this, otherwise I would have responded earlier.

I would seriously consider sealing the whole thing into a specimen box like this:

http://www.ukge.co.uk/uk/product.asp?nu ... &PT_ID=183

You can tape around the line where the box opens with Linco foil barrier tape and then hide the box by fitting it behind a mount. Hopefully there might be somewhere inside the box to hide a silica get packet as well.

Specimen boxes are available in different sizes, from a wide range of suppliers and most are not all that expensive.

misterdiy wrote:Clearly the icing needs to be sealed, but anyone any ideas on what to seal it with.

I would desicate the sugar first in a vacuum jar with a vacuum pump and then seal the surface of the sugar with paraffin wax disolved in hexane. Sugar is not soluble in hexane, but paraffin wax is soluble in hexane and it may be helpful that paraffin wax has anti-fungal and anti-bacterial properties.

BTW, various sweets and other confections are sealed in edible waxes to prevent degradation while packaged and waiting to be purchased by the end user. Wax is an easy choice for sealing sugar items.

As far as I know, I don't think that there are any obvious, or suitable conservation mounting adhesives for sugar items.

I wonder if coating with a conservation adhesive like Paraloid B72 is as much as you could possibly do. I've read of it being used to treat bread for museum displays, although the methods are not that simple.

Not your average framer wrote: As far as I know, I don't think that there are any obvious, or suitable conservation mounting adhesives for sugar items.

I know B72 has been used in repairing damaged/broken icing decorations.

Broken sugar items should be possible to repair by applying water to the broken edges and when they have become sticky, simply pressing them together and allowing to set solid.

Where I was commenting about problems in using a mounting adhesive, I was referring to using an adhesive to mount the sugar tile into place onto a backing material. In fact I don't believe that there are any suitable or fully reversible adhesives which I would be confortable in using on sugar items.

Of course, the use of a foam linned specimen display box should mean that no other means of securing the item in position is required as the foam will hold it in place. In this case, this is probably this simplest possible method and the one with the least negative risk factors.

I see Mark, sorry I was not suggesting using the adhesive for securing the tile to the backing mountboard, merely that I understood it had been used by conservators to re-attach broken icing and other sugar based decoration, and therefore had some (in my opinion) credible basis in this sphere.

Hi Richard,

I was not disagreeing with you at all. I just seems logical to me to repair sugar items by sticking sugar to sugar, if neccessary this could be by means of a clear syrup made from sugar and water.

Obviously Paraloid B72 being soluble in various polar solvent types would not present any problems as a coating for sugar items, as sugar is not soluble in most, if not all polar solvent types. Therefore Paraloid B72 would be removable with the use of the same solvents.

When it comes to using Paraloid B72 as an adhesive for use on sugar items, this is beyond my own knowledge and experience and like you I would rely upon the knowledge of others. As a result of your comments, I have learnt something which I never knew until now. Thanks for educating me!