I am constantly impressed with the information and expertise this group can bring to almost any question. I wonder what a company would give to have our varied expertise available to it. Wow, Nancy, and everyone else who has waded in on the topic. So another possibility is to line my cheap plywood with very thin Plexiglass. That certainly is a possibility. It also speaks highly for an internal coating of a plastic like coating, after consulting with someone who knows what sheâs talking about it in the finishing department. Or maybe just a triple ply muslin bag, or good polyethylene bags. Iâm looking for something that stacks so that each pillow is protected, which means something rigid, and plywood is a good cheap choice, with due deference to the off gassing problems. Not that most of them are valuable in themselves, but if youâve got them, might as well keep them in good condition.
Lyn in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, US, again, after a vacation in Maine, with other lacemakers, no problems from Tropical Storm Irene, but now in Lancaster itâs been a lovely day, comfortable, no rain, breezy. Now waiting for the rain. From: Nancy Neff Sent: Sunday, September 04, 2011 1:47 PM To: [email protected] ; Donna Fousek Cc: Arachne Subject: Re: [lace]storage - conservation concerns (was pillow holder...) -- longish Sorry to be a little late jumping in on this discussion, but I recently came back from a long trip including cataract surgery, and then work after being gone for 6 weeks was... well, you can imagine. First, Lyn--I confess that I store my pillows either in cloth bags or in high-density polyethylene bags. May be bad because of static, I know, but I'm much more concerned about storing my antique laces than I am concerned about any of my own laces/pillows. For the antique laces, I bought a quantity of large (garment-sized) archival textile boxes, such as they use in museums, and a lot of acid-free tissue paper (plus several of those pens that test pH to id acceptable tissue paper among what I already had--lots of better white paper goods are acid-free these days). WRT the conversation about plastics for storage, I asked my Dad (organic chemist and materials engineer who did a lot of work with polymers and resins) about off-gassing from plastics and which would be most stable. I can pass on some bits of info from him: 1) The most stable "plastic" is polycarbonate--which is not really a plastic but a resin. It would have the recycle number 7 on it ("other"), and would be clear and rigid. Trade names include Lucite and Plexiglass in the Americas, and Perspex in Europe. The best quality is totally clear with no cloudiness or irregularities in the transmission of light. 2) Other plastic containers can be polyethylene terephthalate (PET--recycle numbers 1 or 2, or 4 for ziploc bags), or polyvinyl chloride (PVC--number 3), or polypropylene (number 5), or polystyrene (styrofoam--number 6). All are reasonably stable under normal room conditions, i.e., not exposed to high heat (cooking), but there are some differences. Good quality polypropylene (meaning no cloudiness or irregularity in translucency) is best, good-quality polyethylene (again no cloudiness or irregular coloration) is next best, polyethylene acceptable if you're not really fussy (again looking for even transmission of light in the clear forms), and as you might guess, stay away from styrofoam. A big thing to watch for in plastic containers such as your wreath containers is whether or not they keep their shape without their lids. For example, if a square container goes lopsided or out-of-square when the lid is removed, the container wasn't cured properly and would be especially prone to off-gassing the plasticizer (and hence should be avoided for lace or lace-pillows). 3) Another clear material I'm encountering in archival supplies is polyester films, which would be very stable if of good quality, which clear would have to be--probably better than any of the plastics listed in (2) above. I think the biggest concern about storing laces in plastic would be the dirt attracted by the static, and the need for textiles to 'breathe'. I don't know about the latter issue for pillows--I hope we have them out more often than in storage anyway, but I know that I've impulsively/compulsively bought too many rather than finish some of the pieces I had going so storage of lace pillows is in fact something I'm doing more often than not. Hopes this additional information helps even if a little late. Nancy Connecticut, USA From: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> To: Nancy Neff <[email protected]> Sent: Saturday, August 27, 2011 9:19 PM Subject: Re: [lace] Pillow holder - conservation concerns - 3rd reply .... How do you store your pillows? lrb - To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [email protected]. For help, write to [email protected]. Photo site: http://community.webshots.com/user/arachne2003
