Black ash splint basket
This basket is owned by the Seneca Iroquois National Museum in Salamanca, New York. It was brought to the Buffalo State Art Conservation Department with many small losses, broken splints, and an overall accumulation of dirt and soiling.
Before treatment images
Note the partially missing handle on the basket body, losses to the weave structure, and many misaligned splints on the top of the lid. The lid was also very dirty. Not pictured in these images was an entirely missing handle on the opposite side of the body.
Surface cleaning
The basket body and lid were surface cleaned as the first step of treatment. First, the object was vacuumed overall. Then, cosmetic sponges were used to gently lift fine dirt particulates from the lid. The sponges were cut into small pieces and gripped in tweezers in order to clean in the interstices of the weave. In the image on the right (below this text when viewing this website on mobile), the basket lid has been half cleaned with the righthand side remaining soiled to show the cleaning process. Additional cleaning was carried out using swabs lightly dampened in distilled water.
Repairs to broken splints
Japanese tissue strips were used to repair breaks in splints. These small "bandaids" were adhered with wheat starch paste and toned in place with PrismaColor colored pencils. Small magnetics wrapped in nonwoven polyester were used to clamp the mends in place while they dried.
A broken splint, unrepaired, held in alignment using a small magnet.
The same broken splint with the Japanese tissue bandaid in place.
Completed repair after toning with colored pencils.
A search for the right fill material
Finding an appropriately textured fill material was a challenge during this treatment. At first, I was excited about the use of TekWipe, commonly used as a moister carrier for humidification treatments. Its thin ridges made it a good match for the grain of the black ash, and it accepted dye wonderfully. It is seen against the original black ash in the two photos below, with the left image (top image when seen on mobile version of this website) showing the loss, and the right image (lower image when seen on mobile version of this website) showing the toned TekWipe laid in place with no adhesive.
Ultimately, due to lack of evidence supporting the safety of TekWipe as a material to remain in long term contact with cultural heritage objects, it was abandoned in favor of a suggestion from the owning institution. Modern black ash splints were brought to the department by the director of the Seneca Iroquois National Museum, Dr. Joseph Stahlman. He offered the advice that these replacement splints, although presently bright and new, would age to match the surrounding material in time.
Black ash was ultimately chosen as the fill material for all of the large losses, toned only slightly using Orasol dyes in ethanol. In most instances, it was passively woven into the structure surrounding each loss, but in some places it required the tack of fish glue on Japanese tissue to remain secure. In the images below, the loss is pictured on the left (upper image when this website is viewed on mobile), and the passively integrated black ash is pictured on the right (lower image on mobile).
After treatment photos
Below are the before treatment and after treatment images side by side. The missing handle and partially missing handle were both reconstructed using modern black ash splints. The modern black ash was soaked in water until pliable and then left to dry around a glass jar of comparable circumference to the curve of the partially intact handle. The curved black ash was secured in place using fish glue on strips of Japanese tissue. It was toned with Golden fluid acrylics prior to attachment.
In addition to the restored handle, note the cleaner appearance of the basket lid, and the filling of small losses on the basket body.
