Monica, The answer is simple: "NO". There are some fabrics which possess inherent vice that make them entirely unsuiitable for use with museum and heirloom objects, art, and artifacts. Margaret Geiss-Mooney noted a number of those - especially wool or wool blend fabrics. A natural constituent of wool is suplhur - this can produce a "burn" tarnish/corrosion effect on silver and other metals in intimate contact and also it outgassess badly - elemental sulphur when combined with the ambient moisture in the air produces....yes, that's right, sulphuric acid, essentailly acid rain. There are other fabrics which I would doubt would make good choices for exhibition use - silks, for instance, are not only highly suscestible to degradation by light and temperature but is also an excellent "food" for pests. Washing fabrics is simply done to remove the sizing that is applied to many textiles as well as any other contaminents that may be in the fabric. It is also a good check to see if the textile is colorfast when exposed to moisture - you would not want to find that out when the collection either floods or gets soaked when the fire sprinklers go off. The reason why it is important to buy only fabrics that have been Oddy tested is because often commercial companies change the formulations of both fabrics and dyes, and what may seem safe at one time may not be so in a year or two. The same goes for ALL materials in the exhibit or museum environment - from carpets to paints. I am sure that there are others on the List who know much more about this topic than I, but I would strongly suggest that you follow Margaret's advice in the previous posting on this topic. Cheers! Dave David Harvey Conservator Los Angeles, California On 4/17/07, Simpson, Monica <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > > > > > I'd like to hear from a conservator as to whether simply washing fabric > eliminates "chemicals" and makes the fabric safe for use with objects. > > > > Thanks, > > Monica > > > > ________________________________ > ========================================================= Important Subscriber Information: The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes). If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).