For a course in the ethics and practices of art conservation, students were asked to address the challenges of long-term storage for a hypothetical collection. The hypothetical collection I was tasked with preserving consisted of 100 Indonesian Shadow Puppets.

 

Shadow puppets are the primary instrument of wayang, traditional Indonesian puppet theatre, thought to have originated with the introduction of Hinduism and Buddhism to South-east Asia around 800 AD. The puppets are typically made from stiff buffalo hide cut in the silhouette of a character. Supported by sticks and often sporting movable joints, these objects pose many challenges to conservators hoping to preserve them.

 

If only one or a few puppets were present, then specialized housing could be proposed for each delicate object. However, considering the number of shadow puppets requiring housing in this hypothetical situation, a more simplistic method was devised that would protect the objects while operating within a reasonable budget. As outlined below, it was proposed that as many as 25 Perma/Cor Corrugated Newspaper boxes be purchased. Each box could house 4 puppets. Each puppet could be stored in a mylar sleeve placed between pieces of muslin to mitigate changes in temperature and relative humdity and pad the puppets from detrimental contact with neighboring objects. At the bottom of each box, one could put ethafoam cavity cut to hold and protect the sticks on the puppets, which are often times removable. This separation of the components would need to be well documented, but would serve to better protect the objects in the long run. The total cost of the proposed housing came to nearly $2,000 dollars, much less than what such a valued, historic collection would be worth.