Consolidation of mural paintings and plaster

Trying to prove an old myth wright or wrong. In my workshop, we
perform many consolidation measures on both, plaster and mural
paintings.  There are since a while numerous industrial products
available but all of them leave a not so good feeling behind. Or at
least we don't want to trust the industry's suggestions blindly.

All the time, there has been the rumor out there, that limewater
consolidations work fairly well. Those among the conservation
community who are working practically with limewater, swear on the
positive effect it has. Conservation scientists deny that it has any
effect in the matter of consolidation since there is such a small
amount of calcium hydroxide in the limewater.

Has anyone among the list members made some experiences with raising
the amount of calcium hydroxide by the use of some additional
agents?

There are some attempts towards some answers to this old question
(like the work of Isabelle Brajer and Nicoline Kalsbeek) but they
start with the regular low percentage of calcium hydroxide in the
limewater.

Andreas Franz
Atelier Andreas Franz
dipl. Restauratoren HFG/SKR
Kuesnacht, Switzerland


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 13:45
                 Distributed: Friday, February 25, 2000
                       Message Id: cdl-13-45-024
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