<div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div>Hi Cory, </div><div><br></div><div>If you are aware of the safety requirements, then I won't go into this subject (and just mention the words ventilation - PPE). As for cleaning the taxidermy mounts, we have our own ongoing project of cleaning and surveying a bird taxidermy collection. The basic procedures in use are: </div><div><br></div><div>1. Dust removal from feathers - using a vacuum cleaner (the sort with a switch to control suction level, turned down to minimum) and a fine textile mesh. The mesh is first carefuly laid on the bird, one hand is used to keep the mesh in place and the other hand holds the rubber tube we had attached to the vacuum cleaner to create a smaller suction arm. This way, dust can be vacuumed without pulling out feathers. The net has to be lifted off very carefuly at the end of the process, but once one gets used to how it's done, it is easy. </div><div><br></div><div>2. Glass eyes, and keratin beaks and claws - We mostly cleaned these with deionized water in very small quantity - simply using cotton wool swabs dipped in the water, pushed on the edge of the water container to squeeze out extra water and then appled to the surfaces to be cleaned. Usually works well, and because so little solvent is used, the risks to the substrate matter are small. It turned out to be more effective in dust removal compared with other solvents, and of course safer to let our student workers work with. </div><div><br></div><div>3. Mounts - usually the same as in article 2 above, because upon testing, water turned out to be safer that other solvents for the type of paints most often used in our mounts, but that needed to be determined for each mount individually. You may need to do your own solubility testing for yours, just as any paintings conservator would do with a painted surface. In our case, the mounts were most often painted wooden rectangles, with the occassional fake rock and many with attached natural wooden branches (with bark, etc.). A diorama may differ considerably in this respect. </div><div><br></div><div>I don't know whether you need to do feather repairs, but there is information on how to do that. At the time, a few years back, I had participated in a workshop on this subject and the recommended adhesive for repairing broken feather shafts was mowilith, 50%-50% in acetone. Since then, I had used that successfully in our own bird collection. The workshop had demonstrated techniques as well, taught by instructor Allyson Rae. </div><div><br></div><div>As for the arsenic and other stuff quite possibly present on your taxidermy specimens, if you have any possibility of calling someone with a portable XRF to do some random non-invasive sampling of surfaces for you, this could give you a clearer picture of what exactly is present. We did a little of that ourselves and plan to do so more extensively in the future. It really helps, both in terms of getting some real information and in terms of making the hazards clear to everybody involved in working with the specimens. <br></div><div><br></div><div>Hope this helps, </div><div><br></div><div>Gali</div></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div class="gmail_attr" dir="ltr">On Mon, Jun 17, 2019 at 6:17 PM Cory Redman <<a href="mailto:corymredman@gmail.com">corymredman@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;padding-left:1ex;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);border-left-width:1px;border-left-style:solid"><div dir="ltr"><div>Our museum will be tackling the task of cleaning our three largest dioramas. Each diorama has 30-40 birds and small mammals taxidermy mounts that have not been cleaned in a decade. The dioramas were created in the mid 90's, but the taxidermy mounts are much older than that (assume the presence of arsenic). <br></div><div><br></div><div>Any recommendations about method and tips or tricks you can pass along about cleaning would be greatly appreciated. I am aware of the safety protection/precautions that need to be employed. No one on the team, including myself has tackled such a large job as this. <br></div><div><br></div><div>Cheers,</div><div>Cory <br></div><div><br></div><div> </div><div><div><div><br>-- <br><div class="gmail-m_-3096132726086115781gmail_signature" dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr">Cory M. Redman (BSc; MSc; PhD)<br>Science Curator<br>Grand Rapids Public Museum<br><div><br></div><div>272 Pearl Street NW <br></div><div>Grand Rapids, MI 49504 <span><br></span></div><div><span></span></div><div><span></span></div><div><a href="http://www.grpm.org" target="_blank">www.grpm.org</a></div><div><br></div><div><span><span>office: 616:929:1766</span></span></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>
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</blockquote></div><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature" dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><font color="#000080" face="tahoma" size="2"><img width="295" height="590" style="width: 57px; height: 107px;" src="https://docs.google.com/a/mail.huji.ac.il/uc?id=0B5B3I3QnN7dsSzNkbGlLNDNGWG8&export=download">Gali Beiner (ACR)</font></div><div><font color="#000080" face="tahoma" size="2">Conservator, Palaeontology
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