Conservation Treatment
Over 35 years of experience examining, treating, analyzing and preserving

* Works on paper including prints, drawings, watercolors, pastels and oil paintings on paper
* Parchment documents and artifacts
* Oriental screens and scrolls (treated using the western style of damage repair)
* Archival materials including documents, maps and rolled artifacts
* Photographs including prints of all types, film & glass plate negatives, cased photographs and 3-D photo composites

Each treatment is undertaken with the same care and attention to detail, whether it is a personal treasure or an artwork of great value.  Conservators focus on materials, techniques and condition with the goal of coaxing the longest life from the artifact.  Preservation and stabilization is one of our guiding principles. Achieving a sympathetic reintegration of damaged and lost areas is a goal. Working with a conservator is a valuable experience for both collectors and owners of single artifacts. Collectors can develop in-depth knowledge of materials, techniques and artifact condition, while owners of precious personal treasures become aware of sound preservation practices such as proper display, handling and storage.

Digital Facsimiles from Originals
High-stability digital facsimiles are created to exacting visual standards to match the original in a side-by-side comparison. Expertise is based on decades of film, electronic and digital imaging experience. Safety and care are assured because a Conservation professional is always responsible for artifact's management, digital capture, stabilization and storage. Facsimiles can be made from flat art (works on paper), hanging scrolls, posters, or books.

Historic Still Film Migration to Digital
Historic still film is problematic and presents many deterioration issues such as curl, yellowing and silvering-out. Black & white film and glass plate negatives are scanned at their native resolution using liquid mount (where possible), 16-bit depth and at a resolution at least twice their original bandwidth. We seek to make the digital master as close to the original density as possible using a Kodak 1A Step wedge (3.05D) as an internal standard. Channeled acetate base film and degraded nitrate negatives can be recovered to the limits of their physical possibilities. Special methods have been developed to compensate for portions of negatives stuck to envelopes. Output is to digital file (HDD or DVD±R), inkjet prints (1440 dpi at 2.2 Dmax) and digital to film (LVT). A full range of digital restoration and compensation techniques are available for damage and loss. All procedures are based on strict conservation standards.

Preservation Consulting
We provide preservation consulting on

* Condition, storage and treatment of artworks and historic artifacts
* Cold Storage of film and A/V materials, using walk-in cold vaults or stand-alone upright freezers
* Environmental Surveys of storage and display spaces
* Wireless environmental monitoring systems for day-to-day use and grant submissions
* Digital Imaging recommendations on techniques and equipment needed for specific tasks and projects
* Electronic Media preservation and storage; see the VideoPreservation Website.

Collection Surveys
We have extensive experience conducting surveys for museums, libraries, archives, historic houses and private collections. Depending on the focus of the survey, results can evaluate the overall state of an institution and collection, or, focus in on understanding the range of artifact condition and storage variables. Effective preservation planning starts from a current survey that identifies strengths and weaknesses. Surveys are often mandatory in grant submissions for environmental system upgrades, storage improvements and even the simple rehousing project. There are two fundamental types of surveys: collection-level and item-level. The combination survey has wide value to institutions because it involves a careful integration of "collection-level" assessment of storage and display area along with “item-level” evaluations of specific and randomly sampled artifacts. The sample size usually ranges from 1%, for large institutions, up to 5-10% for smaller collections.  The art of the process is to uncover the problems and successes, while also focusing on the collection components that are critical to the mission of the institution.