Ever since the Powerhouse Museum opened in 1988, curator, Lindie Ward and textile conservator, Suzanne Chee have been making simple paper wigs for the museum’s mannequins. The wigs they have created are mimimal and they enhance rather than detract from the dress on display. Yet, with a few strips of carefully cut and placed paper, they have been able to suggest what hairstyle was worn in the period when the dress was in fashion. The strips of paper are attached to the mannequin’s head with archival double-sided tape. It is a very effective way of creating the correct era for a dress.
Recently, Suzanne Chee gave a workshop to the Encore Historical Costume group in St Marys. The dozen participants found it very interesting. We will soon write an information sheet with photos demonstrating how to do this technique.

We have received funding for a four year project called TAM –Total asset management). The project focuses on our collection, rather than on exhibitions. The objective is to preserve, document and manage the collection so that it can be made more widely accessible.

One component of the project that is nearing completion is the rehousing of the Cyril Ruwald Collection. It consists of 1424 architectural plans and drawings including – diazo prints, pencil and ink drawings, blueprints, negative photo-prints and monochrome photographs.

Cyril Christian Ruwald (1895-1959), was one of several architects who designed hotels for Tooth & Co during the 1930s and 1940s. He was instrumental in adapting the streamlined horizontal look of European modernism to hotel design. The collection is regularly viewed for research.

The project involved the following steps:
Step 1: Rehousing – the collection, donated to the PHM in 1990, was originally housed in four large storage boxes, with 350 items per box. It was in poor condition overall primarily due to poor storage.

Step 2: Photography – digital conservation photography of the Ruwald collection has now provided greater access to conservators, staff and clients. Conservation photography clearly documents all aspects of an object so that conservation staff can accurately report its condition. With items from this collection, photographs are taken of the front and back of each, and prints are made of those requiring conservation and condition reports, as well as after-conservation shots.

The images were shot with a Canon 30D, EF 28-135mm lens and Elinchrom soft box studio lights. Studio lights are set at 45 degrees and equidistant from the subject, to provide flat and even illumination. Digital RAW originals of each of the images are kept, then using Photoshop CS3 they are resized to Jpgs and the object identification number is added to each image, for Uploading to our Collection Database K-EMu.

Step 3: Preservation- the individual requirements of each item were assessed and more fragile items, including blueprints, and drawings on tracing paper etc are interleaved with archive text, placed in Mylar sleeves or supported with archival backing boards as required.

A condition report is written for each item and the photographs are annotated to indicate areas of damage and deterioration. Drawings treated so far have had large tears, missing pieces, been stuck together, and tackiness and staining from adhesive tape. The drawings on tracing paper have been the most fragile and damaged.

They were carefully separated from each other and from any interleaving tissue between them. Tape, staining and tackiness, and fragments of paper from other drawings were removed by swabbing with a cotton bud with petroleum spirits and lifting off with a scalpel. Fragments of paper were matched with holes and gaps in the drawings. Creases and folds were removed one by one by swabbing with a cotton bud dampened with di-ionised water, burnishing with a bone folder over a piece of Mylar, and pressing under weights.

Tears were repaired and missing pieces of paper re-attached. Tracing paper is a difficult material to work with because it cockles when it is wet, so two methods of sticking the paper together have been tested – dryish starch paste and Japanese tissue, or small strips of heat set tissue. The first method seems the best – it is stronger, despite the threat of cockling, and the heatset tissue does not stick as well to the tracing paper, so the first method will be used for future repairs on this collection.

The Ruwald collection has now been relocated to a new 23 drawer storage cabinet designed specifically for the flat storage of plans and drawings. The cabinet, made of zinc coated steel finished with a high quality powder coating has perforated drawers allowing for ventilation of the works.
It is hoped that with the photographs available on K-EMu, there will be less need to access the original drawings, reducing wear and tear on the original objects.

Following in the family tradition, Cyril Rouald’s grand daughter, Monica Earl, a Sydney Uni architecture student, recently won the Australian Institute of Architects NSW Design Medal for her redesign of Belmore Park.