The second official week of my project brought with it a lot of new things! I wish I could have come in on Monday to work, but it was MLK Day and the university was closed. So instead, I decided to spend at least five hours working today, January 25th.
I purchased some acetone, finally, and was able to start working on removing the yellowing and nasty glue residue from all over the model. I also cleaned more dirt off various elements of the house. During this detailed work, I learned a few things about the model:
1) Spray glue gets EVERYWHERE and cleaning it up 30 years after the fact is a nightmare.
2) The chimneys were underpainted in black, then painted over in a red brick color, which explains why they look so dirty. But they're not dirty, just chipping.
3) The teeny-tiny wooden raven doesn't go on the roof like I thought. It goes on (what I have designated as) the side porch.
4) I should really take off my nail polish before working with acetone.
Today I managed to finish the preliminary cleaning of the entire house, and I started mixing my glue. Unfortunately, that took way longer than I thought it would, so I was not able to begin gluing anything today. Oh, well!
I'm looking forward to going back on Monday afternoon.
Hours Today: 5:45
Friday, January 25, 2019
Friday, January 18, 2019
Beginnings
Hello All!
Today (January 18th) is my first official day of work on the Haish House restoration. I've done a few months of prework already, where I evaluated exactly how much work this project would be. I also paid a visit to the Art Institute for research and met with the wonderful conservator of the Thorne Miniature Rooms, Lindsey Mican Morgan. I learned a lot there, and while I do not think I'll ever be truly prepared to start this project, I decided that it was time.
When I first encountered the Haish model, it was in dozens of pieces, and everytime someone moved it the house fell apart a little bit more. The model was completed in 1981 and displayed in the DeKalb Public Library for years, but it is now in the collections of the Regional History Center. There is a laundry list of repairs and stabilizations (seriously, my list is 44 items long!) and I hope that I will actually be able to finish this project during the semester!
Today, in addition to getting acquainted with my workspace and new tools, I was able to begin preliminary cleaning. I forgot to buy a product to remove excess glue, so I was only able to remove dirt today--next week I hope to begin to clean the glue lines off so I can cleanly replace the pieces that have fallen off. All in all, over about three hours I was able to lightly clean the dirt from the still-attached portions of the roof, side and front porches, and the gazebo.
I'm excited to see what the future holds for me in this project!
Hours Today: 2:45
Today (January 18th) is my first official day of work on the Haish House restoration. I've done a few months of prework already, where I evaluated exactly how much work this project would be. I also paid a visit to the Art Institute for research and met with the wonderful conservator of the Thorne Miniature Rooms, Lindsey Mican Morgan. I learned a lot there, and while I do not think I'll ever be truly prepared to start this project, I decided that it was time.
When I first encountered the Haish model, it was in dozens of pieces, and everytime someone moved it the house fell apart a little bit more. The model was completed in 1981 and displayed in the DeKalb Public Library for years, but it is now in the collections of the Regional History Center. There is a laundry list of repairs and stabilizations (seriously, my list is 44 items long!) and I hope that I will actually be able to finish this project during the semester!
Today, in addition to getting acquainted with my workspace and new tools, I was able to begin preliminary cleaning. I forgot to buy a product to remove excess glue, so I was only able to remove dirt today--next week I hope to begin to clean the glue lines off so I can cleanly replace the pieces that have fallen off. All in all, over about three hours I was able to lightly clean the dirt from the still-attached portions of the roof, side and front porches, and the gazebo.
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| The first page of my monster to do list |
Hours Today: 2:45