At the Folger Shakespeare Library, interns had the opportunity to make Vivak book cradles for an upcoming exhibition - How to be a Power Player: Tudor Edition. Book and Paper Conservators Rachel Bissonnette and Kathryn Kenney demonstrated how to bend Vivak sheets, how to measure the angle of the book opening to be displayed, and how to tie down pages using polyethylene straps and hair silk. After the Vivak cradle was secured to the metal base, an inch wide strip of polyethylene was used to secure the boards to the cradle, and a ¼ inch polyethylene strap was used to secure the pages beneath the spread to be displayed. The actual pages were secured to the cradle with hair silk, using small rubber bumpers. 

 

I made mounts for two books: The Booke of Falconrie and a velvet bound volume containing the coats of arms of the Knights of the Garter in the Elizabethan court ( though it was later decided that this book would have a different opening).  

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