Hi,hope everyone is having a great day.hope I am at the right place :confused: My son has always been an artist to some degree,since his incarceration he is most certainly perfecting his skills,he has sent to me and other family members,color art (pencils) on hankies.they are most beautiful and mean the world to me.My question,is there a way to perserve the color,something I could possibly spray on them.He is so precious to me,I want to hold on to every moment he share's with me. ant suggestions will be of great appreciation

Other than putting it behind glass,I don't know if there's ways of preserving it. Here's the link to a colored pencil forum. Hopefully they can tell you!

http://cpchallenge.com/

thank you,I'll check it out

I was going to suggest putting it in a frame, with acid free backing and the best UV refective glass you can afford. It wouldn't have to be museum quality, but something better than an acrylic box frame!!

Another thing you may want to test out on a sample hankie is Mod Pog. Pour the Mod Pog into a plastic container that the hankie will fit into flat, then dilute it with 3 parts Mod Pog and 1 part water, mix it really well. Take the sample hankie and carefully submerge it into the Mod Pog solution, making sure every bit of it is wet. Pull the sample hankie out of the plasitc container by the top edges, slowly. Put it onto a wire rack or waxed paper to dry completely.

Now, after a couple of days or a week, check the sample hankie. Did it yellow? Is the Mod Pog flakey? Did the process wrinkle the hankie too much? Or did it work?

I have an artist friend who does this process with all her art, except her oil paintings. She gets the stuff to look great. When I tried it with my paper collages, it didn't work so well. That is why I suggest using a sample hankie to test the process.

Good luck.

JJT

I've always just used a "fabric safe" acrylic spray. I even used plain old white rain hairspray on the first few we got. They're in perfect shape, 12 years later. I used to have them hanging on the wall, but now that daddy's home, I have them stored in a plastic container in the closet. Our son still has his hanging though, and they're doing fine. Just vacuume or "shake" them out once in awhile to keep the dust down.

Missy

Word of warning about using glass. Glass is made with water and takes many years to dry out. If you put glass in front of the hanky, make sure you use acid free matting to keep the hanky from touching the glass.
My hubby sends them to me also. :)

Sherrie