Bob Welbuam: But What About Collecting?
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Horror Story #2
A gentleman called one day and said he wanted to see Ron. He had a box of cels: Snow White, The Band Concert, he went thru a litany of about 30 pieces of art. �I get to Southern California occasionally and I want to bring them by,� he said.
Ron asked the obvious, �Why don�t you FedEx them?�
Oh no, he didn�t want to do that. You see, he�d never met Ron or had done business with S/R Labs, so he preferred to check the situation out face-to-face before handing over his artwork. He�ll just bring them along on his next trip.
Five years later, he shows up. �It�s a sad case, I don�t think these did very well in this May Company box.� He was right. What had happened was he had nothing between the cels to keep them separated. Of course, the cels had off-gassed, and they had caused each to collapse upon the next. By now, they were so brittle they were like glass; they couldn�t even be held between a thumb and forefinger without shattering. That�s when all Ron can do is say �God bless you.�
How do you clean your artwork? You�d be amazed at how simple everything looks. That�s part of the magic.
But it�s not simple at all. �There is a chemological balance to each piece of art that is unique to that art. It is in balance; the art is in equilibrium. And it needs certain things that the collector can�t recognize,� Ron explained.
For example, Ron is occasionally asked �Can�t I just pour some bleach on my drawing?� Think about it: bleach is sodium hypochloride, and it goes to work in a matter of milliseconds. And once you start a chemical reaction, how do you stop it? It�s simple: you can�t. Once begun, any chemical reaction must reach its logical conclusion. That�s why your doctor is so careful; that�s why we have prescriptions.
This also means that knowledge from one environment cannot automatically be transferred to another environment, e.g. you just don�t take bath soap and wash off your Disneyana collection. So many items are made with different kinds of inks and dyes and all kinds of things, even toys.
For 3-D conservation, you�d be amazed at how many people send in a Mickey doll or a Winnie the Pooh and they say �You know, it�s a funny thing, but I was using Formula �409� � household cleaner and his eyes disappeared. He�s blind.� Ron warns, �That stuff on old dolls and figurines is not meant to last decades and decades.� Cleaning them requires certain types of washes that are created to have detergency capability, and yet not cut the inks or the dyes.
Another common comment is �I was using such-and-such of cleaner, and everything looked great, and all of a sudden the character�s hands are gone.� Or Winnie the Pooh turned red. What happens is these chemicals release tracer dyes. If you�re skeptical, try this with colored pencils: draw some lines on a white piece of paper, spray the lines with some household chemical, and watch the colors change.
Without getting too technical, these items are made of combinations of colors. These can be solid colors that have been ground into liquids, or an inert substance like talc that has been dyed. So when you rub the colored pencil on, you�re rubbing on a dyed, inert pigment. The cleaner releases the dye, which leaches out, and then the color changes.
Some colors are called fugitive colors, which are colors that fade quickly. Most colors that were used on Disney animation cels were fast colors, which in this case means they retain their colors very, very well. There were a few that were not. For example, some of the light pink colors in Fantasia could be quite fugitive. Another good example is the color used in The Sword in the Stone�s Madam Mim�s skirt, which tends to bleed off into the cel and can leave a halo of color outside the black inking line. And cels themselves retain color too. The orange-red of Winnie the Pooh�s shirt is very indelible, and can stain the cel. To make matters even more complicated, remember that not all cels age at the same rate. Some Mary Poppins cels are actually aging quicker than 1930s nitrate cels.
While we�re on the subject of cleaning, how do you clean figurines? Ron quipped, �Very carefully!� Generally speaking, never use gauze. Gauze cuts, it has a slicing capability. It�s composed of cotton threads just like wire; they might as well be floss. Ron suggests using a very soft cotton with a little water misted on it, because there should be nothing on the figurine but dust.
But beyond dust is dirt. Think a minute about plain ordinary �dirt.� Dirt is actually extremely complex. Returning to animation cels again, this is especially true of what can get on cels; the cel itself needs different kinds of stuff to remove the dirt that�s on it. Some analysis is required, and the cleaning process must be tailored to the problem. It�s best to follow one basic, simple rule: when you think you know what to do, don�t do it. But unfortunately some people have to learn this the hard way: