A remarkable Jacobean re-emergence after 200 years of yellowing varnish Courtesy Philip Mould
PAINT RESTORATION OF MESMERIZING
I saw this on Twitter. He’s using acetone, but a cellulose ether has been added to make it into a gel (probably Klucel—this entire gel mixture is sometimes just called Klucel by restorers, but Klucel is specifically the stuff that makes the gel).
Normally, acetone is too volatile for restoration, but when it’s a gel, it becomes very stable and a) stays on top of the porous surface of the painting, and b) won’t evaporate. So it can eat up the varnish.
It looks scary, but acetone has no effect on oils, and jelly acetone is even less interactive with the surface of the paint or canvas.
Will someone PLEASE clean the mona lisa
For those who are wondering, they cleaned a copy of the Mona Lisa made by one of Da Vinchi’s students, and here’s a side by side comparison:
it would’ve scared the fuck out of me holy shit that’s big
So for anybody who doesn’t know, that ring of bubbles you see coming up before the humpback does is a “net” that the whale creates by swimming in a circle and blowing the bubbles from its blowhole. The bubble net disorients the krill/small fish/whatever and corrals them into one spot so that the whale can lunge up and feed as you see it doing. It’s most often done cooperatively in groups, and a whole bunch of whales will lunge up at once.
willowfoot 