{"id":926,"date":"2019-07-22T09:19:04","date_gmt":"2019-07-22T09:19:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.dorsetforyou.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/?p=926"},"modified":"2019-07-19T09:04:01","modified_gmt":"2019-07-19T09:04:01","slug":"the-work-of-a-conservation-volunteer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/2019\/07\/22\/the-work-of-a-conservation-volunteer\/","title":{"rendered":"The work of a Conservation Volunteer"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is the fourth blog in our series on the railway plans. In the last part<\/a> we explored how the plans are graded, which informs how our Conservator approaches the work. Due to the large number of plans a volunteer, Clare, was taken on to help conserve those plans graded two.\u00a0 These plans mostly require cleaning with some minor paper repairs, as well as flattening and repackaging.\u00a0 Here Clare discusses her role.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

I am the Conservation Volunteer at Dorset History Centre, and have been working on railway plans that date from 1824. These plans have been stored rolled, which makes them very difficult to treat as they need weights to hold them in place whilst I work.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Clare cleaning a railway plan with a smoke sponge.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

First they need to be cleaned.\u00a0 To do this, the page is brushed with a goat hair brush to remove any dust and surface dirt.\u00a0 It\u2019s amazing how much dirt can be removed by doing this and sometimes a clean brush is needed after just cleaning the cover as it\u2019s so grubby!<\/p>\n

After all the pages have been brushed, the whole book is then cleaned with a smoke sponge to remove any ground-in deposits.\u00a0 A set of plans can take several hours to clean, especially if it\u2019s a large thick book that has lots of pages and is very dirty; even the smaller ones can take up to an hour.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

After a set of plans has been cleaned, they need any damage to be repaired.\u00a0 For this we use Japanese paper and wheat starch paste.\u00a0 First the edges are smoothed out to check they fit back together, and if a piece has broken off completely it is also placed back in at this stage. A piece of clear polyester sheet is placed over the tear and the Japanese paper is laid on top.\u00a0 Using a brush, water is used to mark out a repair piece on the Japanese paper, leaving a 5mm margin around the tear to give the repair strength.\u00a0 This repair piece is then carefully pulled away and you get a nice fluffy edge which is great, so the long fibres can grab onto the page.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Adding Bondina, blotter and weights…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Next, a piece of blotter and a sheet of woven polyester called Bondina are placed under the tear.\u00a0 It\u2019s important that they are larger than the repair as the blotter soaks up the moisture and the Bondina is there to stop the repair sticking to the blotter. \u00a0Next the wheat starch paste is applied to the Japanese repair piece.\u00a0 This is done on a piece of blotter to so as not to make it too wet.\u00a0 The repair piece is then placed over the tear and another piece of Bondina and blotter are placed on top.\u00a0 Weights are used to help remove moisture and stop the paper from curling.\u00a0 When the repair is dry the excess Japanese paper is then trimmed.<\/p>\n

\"\"
The finished repair. Excess Japanese paper will be trimmed away.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On some of the plans the binding has come unstitched.\u00a0 If this has happened, it actually makes it a lot easier to clean and repair as pages can be separated and easily moved around, but the binding will then need to be re-sewn.\u00a0 The cord used for this gets very easily tangled, so working with long lengths can be quite difficult!<\/p>\n

I have really enjoyed working on the plans.\u00a0 It\u2019s great to be able to repair documents so that the public can access them.\u00a0 When a book of plans has been conserved and packaged, it\u2019s really satisfying to see them flat and repaired and remember how they used to be.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

This is part four of an eight part series of blogs on the work we are doing to conserve the railway plans.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Part 1:\u00a0Getting the Records Back on Track<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Part 2:\u00a0The Importance of the Railway Plans and Sections<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Part 3: The Challenges of the Railway Plans<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is the fourth blog in our series on the railway plans. In the last part we explored how the plans are graded, which informs how our Conservator approaches the work. Due to the large number of plans a volunteer, Clare, was taken on to help conserve those plans graded two.\u00a0 These plans mostly require… Read more The work of a Conservation Volunteer<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1892,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7,31],"tags":[82,9,92],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/926"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1892"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=926"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/926\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":952,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/926\/revisions\/952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}