Tobacco leaves

A client has acquired a "hand" of tobacco leaves (the dried bunch of
leaves, still attached to the stalk), and wants to display them
hanging as if still in the drying barn. She has discovered, though,
that the dry leaves are very fragile and friable, shedding material
as they hang.

A hand of tobacco may consist of many leaves on a stalk up to
several feet long, and and the whole bundle roughly twelves inches
in diameter.

Does anyone have suggestions for consolidating or otherwise
stabilizing what is basically an intact dried botanical specimen
that is going to be displayed with no other modifications?

Howard Wellman


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 19:32
                 Distributed: Tuesday, January 10, 2006
                       Message Id: cdl-19-32-014
                                  ***