My name is Sara Drew,
and I am an art conservator
at Center Art Studio in New York City.
My team and I are going to walk you through
step by step how we restore
a 250-plus-year-old
French plaster and giltwood frame.
This frame was brought to us by a private client
along with a painting that we will restore as well.
The frame, when it came to us,
was extremely dirty,
and it needed a lot of structural repairs.
There was a lot of ornament that was missing.
When we start cleaning the frame,
we start with the back.
There's a lot of resin on the back of the frame,
so we use a scalpel to scrape this resin off.
It's likely some sort of polyurethane
from a previous restoration.
That stuff is tricky to remove,
so mechanically removing it with a scalpel
is the best approach.
Once we have the back clean,
we flip the frame right side up
and we start the front cleaning.
We commonly use cotton swabs
to clean the surface of a frame,
but we also are going to be using micro-metal tools,
literally the same tools that a dentist will use
to really get into all of the small little recesses.
We use a variety of solvents,
which lift the dirt up
and allow us to then take swabs
to lift the dirt away.
This frame was originally water gilded,
which means gold leaf was applied to it.
Because of that, we have to be
very careful with our cleaning,
because it would be very easy
to remove that original gilding.
We never want to make something look brand new.
So while we are going into the recesses
and we are removing the dirt,
we don't want to entirely remove
all of that built-up patina.
We want to retain an element of age.
The main issue with the back of this frame
is that it has been expanded
to take a larger piece of art
than it was originally built for.
The first time we saw it,
we knew that we were going to have to disassemble it
and build it back up properly.
In order to put the frame back properly,
we are using a product called fish glue,
which is a super-condensed fish product.
It's a very traditional adhesive
to use in conservation, and it's very strong.
And then we align the frame.
Once we feel that all the structural work
has been completed,
we move on to filling in
the missing areas of the frame.
Three of the four corners
are completely missing their corner ornament.
Luckily, we have one corner that is completely intact.
That works to our advantage in this case,
because we will be able
to take a silicone mold of this corner
and then cast plaster replicas of it.
To make a mold off the frame,
we use a silicone compound.
Once you have it mixed together,
you can lay it over a part of the frame
that you want to replicate.
It cures over the course of about
20 or 30 minutes.
Once it's fully cured,
you can carefully peel it off the frame,
and you will have the imprint of the shape of the frame
that you want to replicate in that mold.
We are using plaster to cast the molds.
So we mix up a batch of plaster,
and we pour it into the silicone mold.
Once the plaster has dried,
we can pop that out of the mold.
To prepare the frame to receive the plaster casts,
we need to remove some of the plaster material
that's already on it.
We use a hammer and chisel
to carve away a recess that will allow
the cast piece to sit flush in the frame.
We will shape and finesse these cast pieces
to make sure that they fit properly
in the areas where we're going to be applying them.
We use sandpaper in different grits.
We are using fish glue again
to adhere the cast pieces onto the frame.
When we feel like the frame is physically complete,
it is time to move on to the color work.
The first layer of paint
that we are applying to the frame is a primer.
This is a Venetian red primer.
And that just creates a very nice red base layer
for us to work off of.
We are gold-leafing the ornaments
in the corners of this frame.
This is a process called gilding.
The frame was originally gilded with gold leaf.
And so whenever possible,
we like to use the original materials in our restoration,
just so the object has as much integrity
to the original as possible.
The first step to gilding
after you've applied the base layer
is to apply a sizing medium.
And this is brushed onto the plaster,
and it is allowed to dry for about 30 minutes.
It gets tacky.
And once it's tacky,
it's in the right state to accept the gold leaf.
It is very, very delicate,
so you can't touch it with your hands.
It will just crumble.
So in order to handle it,
Caryn, one of our team members,
is using a horsehair brush
and lay it onto the ornament that we want to gild.
We also will use squirrel-hair brushes
to brush it on and make sure that it's adhering
to all of the recesses and all of the areas of the frame.
Once the gold leaf is applied,
we move on to the inpainting process.
And we are going to paint over the gold leaf
to tone it down slightly,
and also over all of the fills that we've made on the frame.
And we use a combination
of conservation colors,
which are paints
that are specifically designed for conservation work.
It is literally a trial-and-error process.
Often, we will make a color,
we'll have to adjust it, correct it a little bit.
This is where the frame starts to really look
like one whole object again.
The next step is to
apply a layer of shellac.
And this just serves as a topcoat.
It protects all of our work.
It also makes everything
just have a cohesive finish and sheen.
We're really happy with how this restoration came out.
We have done a lot
to restore the structural integrity
and the visual integrity of this frame,
and we hope the client can enjoy the frame
for years to come.