Hi Helmar fans, Raelene with you today.
One of the things my Mum absolutely treasured was this portrait of me. It is by the first artist/photographer to ever put photos onto canvas and I think it was in 1978/1979 judging by my age in the photo. He had a ground breaking technique for putting photos onto canvas and making them look like a oil painting and my portrait appeared on TV as there was a special on it late at night. I remember Mum telling me about how Grandma stayed up late to watch it.
I have no idea who the artist was but I would love to find out.
Unfortunately the way Mum stored it and the way it was transported during multiple moves caused it to come out of it's frame but thanks to Helmar I was able to glue it back in!
I wasn't sure which glue was best so I asked Helmar and as always they had answers and advice to help me get this done. Helmar Super-Tac Glue was what was recommended and it definitely did the job.
I cleaned the frame and the edge of the canvas with a damp cloth. Then I applied Helmar Super-Tac Glue to the edge of the canvas but I would realise this was a mistake and it was better to apply it inside the frame to get a proper adhesion of the canvas to the frame.
I got a really good seal using this glue.
As you can see in this photo the print is starting to come off in tiny spots, it is also really faded (my dress had sky blue flowers on it), etc due to being on a wall for 30 years so I have wrapped it up in bubble wrap and packed it into a picture/mirror box to keep it safe.
After packing it away I realised I should have given it a coat of Helmar Chrystal Kote Gloss Varnish (gloss as it was glossy when new) to provided added protection, so I will have to get it out of storage and do that a.s.a.p!
I am so glad that I was able to get this back into it's frame and hopefully it will last longer thanks to Helmar.
