When researching how to clean watercolor or oil paintings yourself at home, we were surprised to find this method that involves a loaf of bread...
How-to: Clean a Painting
...with a Loaf of Bread?
From Howcast:
1: "Decide whether you can clean the painting yourself. If it’s extremely valuable or an antique, use a professional."
2: "Gently dust the painting with a soft-bristle brush. As you’re using the brush, imagine that you’re dusting pollen from flower petals."
3: "Use the inside of the bread to remove any dirt. Break off a piece of bread and gently rub a section of the painting. When that piece is dirty, break off another piece and continue on another section. Before you use bread on an oil painting, make sure the paint layers are firmly attached so you don’t rub off any paint."
4: "Brush away any excess bread crumbs."
5: "Hang or re-hang your painting. Take a moment to enjoy the satisfaction of having successfully restored your artwork."
See a step-by-step video of a painting being cleaned with bread at Howcast.
Have any pros out there heard of this method? Can you attest to its effectiveness or lack thereof?
Image: still via Howcast's How To Clean a Painting video
Comments (11)
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don;t a lot of breads nowdays have a a lot of preservatives, oils, sugars....
I'd be concerned what those do to the painting.
view Aster's profile
Not all bread. Read the ingredients...
This makes sense, at least. Prior to the eraser, bread was used. Makes me want to bring a loaf to school one day - "My erasers are all used up, sorry"
view Rosey G.'s profile
In 1625, the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel was cleaned using bread.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restoration_of_the_Sistine_Chapel_frescoes
view spaceystacey's profile
Strongly recommend using a sable brush or a very soft brush (synthetic sable, squirrel or even mongoose hair) if you suspect any damage or cracking.
Better yet have a professional clean it (unless its one of those wonderful flea market retro works).
view grumbler101's profile
You can use a soft paintbrush or even an old toothbrush to brush dirt or dust off of a painting. You can also use the tip of a soft cloth as long as it’s smooth.
Acai Berry Detox
view ryanharish's profile
Don't ever use fodd (bread, onions) to clean paintings. It rots with time and develop damaging organisms.
view marujita's profile
Please, please, don't do this. Seek the help of a professional art conservator to clean your paintings. Do not ever rub the surface of a painting with anything, especially not food.
view HillE's profile
Get down off your high horses, marujita and HillE. They're suggesting this for cleaning your unimportant art (like the awful junk painting in the video), not your collection of priceless Picassos.
I have a painting that's been mistreated and begrimed. I might give the old bread trick a whirl.
view Blandwagon's profile
So I'm guessing that Fantastick is not the way to go after all (as a friends mother did)?
view dn's profile
I would never use bread to clean a painting.
Instead, read through our guide on Caring for Your Paintings:
http://www.conservation-us.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=Page.ViewPage&PageID=632
There is also a link on the page on how to locate a paintings conservator near you.
view retrostyleguy81's profile
When they renovated our historic central library, they cleaned the painted ceilings with Wonder bread and soap flakes.
view aj's profile