Stain on dress

On behalf of textile conservators at the Museo Del Cine in Buenos
Aires, Argentina, Sarah Resnick <sarah.resnick [at] gmail__com>
writes

>The museum holds in its collection a dress with a number of stains.
>Some of the stains are intentional--including blood in the chest
>area and mud at the hem line--while others are incidental, including
>discoloration inside the cuffs and elsewhere. They would like to
>clean the dress without removing the intentional stains, but are
>unsure how to proceed. ...

I would suggest you try laser cleaning: it does not involve any
water or solvents and the surface is never directly touched. Since
the size of the beam can be around 1mm you can work selectively
around the areas that you do not want to clean.

Stefania De Zanche
Cultural Heritage Division
LAMBDA Scientifica SpA
Vicenza,Italy
+39 0444 349165


                                  ***
                  Conservation DistList Instance 23:1
                  Distributed: Wednesday, May 27, 2009
                        Message Id: cdl-23-1-003
                                  ***