Beauty (and Christmas prize!)
Beauty is around us: in the writing of a manuscript, the clasps of a book, the mark of an etching or the traced lines of a drawing. In this year's Christmas there are masters' works by Albrecht Dürer, Jean-Auguste Dominique Ingres, Salvador Dalí, Joan Miró, Sam Cobean, Bruegel, Ramon Casas, an 14th c. manuscript and an Ornithology by Aldrovandi with parchment over stiff boards.
For a stellar Christmas and new year!
For a stellar Christmas and new year! (and christmas contest)
Premiere of the video of the conservation treatment of a map
Premiere of the video showing the full conservation treatment of an oversized hand-coloured map, varnished and lined on a canvas. Do not miss it! Next Thursday 27 at 4pm CEST (UTC+2).
A book conservation, the best Christmas gift
Conservation is magical, bringing back to life books that seemed useless. A video of a miniature library, whose books were bound by friends... is magical as well!
Hands on paper conservation, for Christmas!
Hands that shake friends' hands, hands to hug and to love, hands that restore. Hands that cannot be replaced... Nor we wish to do so!
Profession: book and paper conservator
What does a paper conservator do? Whom does she work for? What skills and knowledge does she ought to have? Preservation and conservation, a field linked to science, history and arts and crafts. A video explains what differenciates us from forgers and shows -among other- how we produce a hand-made suction table to restore paper artifacts, with loads of creativity, a feature most necessary to become book and paper conservator.
No gordian solution for the resilient conservator
To trim or not to trim. Is that the question? A book conservator deals with main ethical considerations. Sometimes because of the customer desire's, and most of the time seeking an equilibrium between preservation and functionality. To top it up, we expect the result to be pleasant as well: not too new, not too worn; most original, but not too weak... Rare is the case when we find a salomonic solution that satisfies all the requirements. I guess a conservator is not the type who cuts the gordian knot, but rather one who tries to unlock it no matter how painful that is!
A midnight lockdown paper conservation dream
A lockdown is kind of stoping any activity, and that is what I have done, a stop-motion video, showing the full conservation treatment of a paper document.
Save the date: Tuesday 21st at 11h
Conference about impregnated tracing paper conservation and premier of the video of my latest super-oversized project
Christmas angels in serious condition,on their way to full recovery!
Christmas angels currently at ICU in serious condition. Diagnosis: chronical humidity, binding dislocation, a variety of infections and rodent attack. Prognostic is optimistic because a high level team is taking good care of them. Soon they'll be bright and happy as Larry, just like in this year's Christmas greetings. Don't miss the video!
Smart materials for display, storage, housing and wrapping solutions in cultural heritage (APACHE)
The APACHE project aims to develop new technologies for display, storage and wrapping materials of cultural heritage. Answer the survey to contribute to it, and your collection will be represented in this leading research.
Retouching, a taboo in paper conservation?
Retouching is among the most sensitive within ethics in conservation since it means to establish the aspect a restored object is expected to have. My opinion is that the looks of an historical object is often as important as its physical-chemical condition, and not intervening provides poor results that might mislead its readability more than a proper intervention. The more we intend to make it as neutral as possible, the least arbitrary, we need to admit that retocuhing requires good taste.
Silver Mirroring Removal in Photographs (Video)
At last a deffinitive method, safe and efficient for silver mirroring removal in historical photographs. This new treatment will change the way the issue of silver mirroring removal has been addressed in photographic collections. See it in this video and value the results.
Housing as a (quite desperate) conservation resource
New artwork arrives at the studio to be ready for an exhibition: pressure, limited time, bleeding inks... Could it not be some other easier and more showing off artefacts? Here's what I do when I don't seem to find much to do: Tape removal, and failing to flatten under tension with magnets... Mounting the artwork on a housing that secured an even tension on the artwork during the exhibition, was the last resource.
Untangling tensions, for an improved 2019
We wish you merry Chrsitmas and a better (and restored) 2019, untangling knots and tensions, at least those from parchment manuscripts.
Silver Mirroring: Its Importance, Formation Process, and a New Elimination Procedure
New Elimination Procedure for Silver Mirroring. Silver mirroring is a type of deterioration that appears in most gelatin developing-out paper (DOP) historical photographs and black-and-white films. Its treatment involves so many problems that it has often been ruled out. In this article we present a new and simple elimination procedure, which is efficient and offers stable results in the long term. The study of the causes of the formation of silver mirroring sheds light on aspects that had been little explained so far: the fact that this type of deterioration always appears on the surface of the image leads us to consider a mechanism of transport of electrical charges.
Unlocking St. Anthony’s locked manuscript
"Tony, Tony, come around, something’s lost and can’t be found!" Some manuscripts require more than just manual skills to succeed in their conservation, and so we prayed to Saint Anthony to help us unlocking the bookbinding, whose key had been lost forever. Certainly not many renaissance bookbindings have an iron safety lock in their covers and thus this extra holly help was deemed quite necessary. The prayer didn't provide any key, but at least a satisfactory conservation solution was achieved!
Gels, microemulsions and nano-systems applied to pressure sensitive tape removal: latest updates
Tape removal, chemical and physical gels, microemulsions and much more. Review and abstract of the conference "Nanosystems. Application to tape removal on cellulosic supports,", which took place in Madrid (Spain), on June 6 to 8th, 2018; within the context of NanoRestArt, the european Research and Developement project.
Sōkō conservation for oversized sketches by Sorolla
Sorolla sketches represent the spontaneity, the genius and the creative stage for its own right. Their conservation shares with them this essentiality, the minimal intervention character. The restoration has adopted japanese tools and techniques, a paper conservation at the most eastern style. Or not that utmost, since the Karibari was replaced by a wooden board. Eastern or western, the restoration of the gouache sketches has been truly remarkable, and you'll have to read it to know why.
Endbands, headbands and ties
The headband to a book is like the tie to a suit: they both give their owner the chance to stand out. It is like the icing on the cake of the binding, and gathers the bookbinder's proficiency and taste. We'll discuss their aspect like in a Vanity Fair, and go beyond: What are they meant for? and why stuck-on headbands are less cared by conservators than sewn ones? Should we replace them or conserve them? The untrained eyes will look at them with more interest now, because -just like ties- there are headbands for all tastes!
Hold on and suck in, Miss Scarlett! Removing a plastic corset from a manuscript
A personal story, a historic manuscript, a crazy laminating machine and a final outcome. All these ingredients are seasoned with PFTE, TFA, HFIP, PE, DMSO, PET... cling, dong and BOOM!... An explosive -but most irresistible- cocktail. We'll discuss about synthetic polymers, sorts of laminations and encapsulation.
The diplomatic neutral colour
What is a neutral colour? Is it a pH=7 colour? A transparent colour? Greenish... brown? An oil colour... or maybe acrylic? Conservators mean by it: "I will paint the missing area with a single colour which you won't see much". It can be green, purple, pencil coloured or either with acrylic paints... Controversial is on the cards and whatever we do, even when not doing anything at all, conservators know that our decision will not suit everyone's taste.
Course: Inpainting & Loss Compensation on Paper (1rst edition)
Can you match the colour but not the surface texture? [...]
Mysterious iron rods in a 16th limp vellum binding
Case of a manuscript bound on a limp parchment bindining with peculiar sewing over iron rods
