"Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful." This is week forty-four of the Pancakes & French Fries William Morris Project, happening every thursday in 2012.
To recap for those of you who just dropped in on this painting restoration project and wonder, "what are all these boring and almost identical photos of a dirty old picture all about anyway, and what does it have to do with the William Morris Project?", I am documenting the slow restoration of a nearly 100 year old oil painting, frame and all. {you could also read this.}
Methylene Chloride: friend to none. Prefers to be left alone, isn't interested in snuggling or watching movies, and certainly doesn't make good conversation.
Likes: causing respiratory discomfort, skin irritation and occasionally death if taken internally. Oh, and destroying your optic nerves.
Dislikes: being within the reach of children.It sure comes in handy when you need to remove some paint though! When nothing else seemed to make a dent in the horrible over-painting on the frame, Methylene Chloride melted it away like nobody's business. This process was particularly helpful in discovering which areas of the frame were gilded with the oil method vs. the water method. I thought originally that I might be able to salvage some of the gold leaf that lay underneath the bronze powder paint, but it turns out that even the water gilded stuff was terribly degraded. The whole piece must have suffered some significant water damage at one point to account for the poor condition of the water gild as well as the shrunken and ripped canvas.
After removing the bronze powder paint, the remaining mirrored areas are all that remains of the original water gild gold leaf. I at least have a map so to speak of where to gild what when I finally reach that stage of the project in about 2042.
You can see the bits and pieces of shiny gold leaf here and there, as well as a few glittery spots that were the oil gilded gold leaf. Basically the flat parts were shiny, the detailed parts were matte.
I used a small brush to get into the heavily decorative parts of the plaster, but there is still work to be done. So. Much. Work. Once all the gross old paint is removed, I will prepare the surface with a couple different materials made from boiled animals, chalk and clay. I am really looking forward to that part. For now, I am having fun with my new chemical match made on the internet, Methylene Chloride. We have a strict no touching policy.
Apparently now I also have a cold, Alice
{after reading up on Methylene Chloride a bit more, I am definitely opening the garage door from now on. Don't read about it Mom, seriously.}
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