Part 1: The Door by the Dodo: My placement at Bristol Museum and Art Gallery

Hello conservation blog fans! I (Tanya) will begin our glorious return to the blogosphere by telling all of you about my educational and inspirational 4 weeks at Bristol Museum and Art Gallery and St. Fagan’s National History Museum.

Bristol is an amazing city with a diverse set of museums and historic houses. In the Bristol Museum and Art Gallery, past the dodo display, is a door that hides several stairs to the conservation lab. My daily exercise to the museum and up all the steps to the lab was often countered with the delicious biscuits and cakes that were always present in the tearoom. Although I learned a lot about conservation and worked with materials I had never worked with before, perhaps the most important lesson I learned while at Bristol was that taking a tea break is crucial! By taking a break you can come back to your work with a fresh set of eyes and you also get to know the rest of the friendly conservation team: Amélie and Jenny (objects conservators), Pavlos, Harry, Alicia (paper conservators), Helen (paintings conservator), and any other special guests that may be visiting that day from other parts of the many Bristol galleries.

Izzy (another Cardiff Conservation Student) and I having tea with a lot of biscuits.

Bristol Museum was preparing for a commemorative exhibit for the anniversary of World War I, so I began my placement by removing the tarnish from a WWI pin and medal. I used the solvent IMS (Industrial Methylated Spirit) on a cotton swab to take off the black tarnish on the pin and medal that was obstructing details on both. The thread that held the ribbon to the clasp on the medal was very degraded and came undone on one side while I was observing it. Amélie noted that we do not have a textile specialist and did not want me to attempt to sew the ribbon back on, so I used Japanese tissue paper which I coated in Lascaux adhesive to create a secure yet easily reversible double-sided sticky tape to connect the ribbon back to the clasp.

I also worked on a ceramic plate, which I thought would be similar to working on the ceramic modern art I had done for my course. The angles of the plate and the sheer weight of it made it a completely different experience. Paraloid B-72 served well again to re-adhere this earthenware ceramic back together and I fashioned a secure way to hold it in place while it dried with a clamp and bowl of sand. I then filled the gaps with the comically named Flügger Snickerispackel, an acrylate filler which had to be sanded down and polished repeatedly until it was just right and level. I also got to try in-painting for the first time with a polymer varnish that would hold together pigments. Once I was able to colour match the paint, it was incredibly satisfying to see the fracture lines and filled gaps disappear— making the plate look good as new.

From left to right: My clamp and sand bowl contraption, filling in the cracks, and in-painting.

Bristol University had enlisted the help of the museum conservators to prepare their enormous amount of old teaching materials from the natural science department to go on display in their brand new building. This was perhaps the most exciting part of the entire placement for me as I have a very strange love that borders on obsession for all things bone related. We had to clean and consolidate (if necessary) any skulls, skeletons, taxidermy, and sea life that would be going on display. For the bone, we used about 2% of Triton-X  mixed in water and cotton swabs followed by IMS with a swab to remove the residue of the dirt that the Triton-X was able to gently break down without harming or staining the bone. The amount and assortment of objects was so incredible and entertaining—Izzy and I even spent nearly two weeks cleaning an entire bear skeleton!

Triton-X: This wetting agent was used as alternative to spit cleaning. It gently broke down the dirt and residue on the bone without harming it and without giving us dry mouths from using our own spit!

Our lovely bear friend.

Working with glass was new for me so I was given a small glass candle wax catcher to attempt to fix.  With Amélie’s extensive knowledge in glass conservation I learned how to carefully tape the fractured pieces of glass together and how to run the precise mix of Fynebond epoxy resin and hardener adhesive down the crack so that it was absorbed through capillary reaction. It was remarkable how the epoxy was absorbed into the fractured imperfections until the lines almost disappeared completely.

The glass: before and after.

Another object I got to work on was an ostrich feather fan. This may sound glamorous, but this poor fan had a tragic encounter with pests. The fan was frozen prior to my receiving it to ensure that no little buggers survived, so I was left with a yellowish handle that barely held some lovely white feathers which were covered in tiny black bug eggs. This put me off of starting treatment on the fan at first, but I dove in hoovering the bug eggs with a HEPA filter that is certified to pick up and filter extremely small particles. I then untangled the feathers and picked off any excess eggs with tweezers like I was combing through hair for lice. I did not want to use solvent on the handle to remove the old adhesive just in case it was made of cellulose nitrate or cellulose acetate because it could dissolve that as well. Instead I spit cleaned it by running a swab on the inside of my cheek and removing the old crusty adhesive off the handles and wiping that residue off with water. Sounds gross, but it was super effective! I re-adhered the fan in place with cellulose nitrate and it looked good enough to use again (but don’t worry, I didn't)!

Yellowish Handle: Cellulose acetate and cellulose nitrate are polymers that can be used as adhesives or have added fillers to be used to mimic ivory, tortoise shell, and other objects that were once fashioned into glasses, combs, and even fan handles.

From left to right: My mangled fan, the wonders of spit cleaning, and the careful handling of feathers.

I am extremely grateful that Bristol Museum gave me the opportunity to work with them this summer. Not only did I get to work with a range of materials that I had never worked with before, but I also got to work with a diverse group of people that were as fun as they were talented. From bones to bug eggs to loads of biscuits, Bristol Museum was a well-rounded placement!

Archaeological Iron

Many objects come to us from museums and require conservation for repairs, in preparation for display, or to protect from further deterioration. Some objects however come from archaeologists and require conservation for research purposes.

My first solo venture was to conserve some archaeological iron which had been excavated from Ham Hill – the biggest Hill Fort in Britain. I had 17 iron objects in total, all covered in dirt and several layers of corrosion, obscuring their original shape; looking at them you wouldn't know that beneath all the dirt was an actual object!

The largest of my iron objects before treatment

The conservation requirement was to reveal the shape and enable the archaeologists to record accurately what they had found; after which they would be put into storage. So the conservation requirement was simple enough – clean.

In this context it required removal of the dirt and top layer of corrosion to reveal a more stable and aesthetically pleasing magnetite layer underneath. The original iron of the object is now vulnerable; if exposed it can react with moisture and oxygen in the environment and cause further corrosion and damage (you may come back to the piece in a few years to find it has completely disintegrated!)

Magnetite: A stable layer of corrosion; grey in colour, it shows the original shape of the iron underneath it, while protecting the iron from further corrosion.

X-Rays provided by my tutor allowed me to see the shape and amount of the original iron left underneath the corrosion, and gave me a guide for where to clean to.

And what did all this mean? This meant it was time to get to grips with the Air Abrasive!

The Air Abrasive machines use Aluminium Oxide powder to blast away the corrosion; you can vary the pressure and powder flow to control how powerful it is. The work is done under a glove box, with gloves, lab coat and dust mask. Here’s me air abrading!

Me using the Air Abrasive machine to clean one of my pieces of iron

Blast the corrosion off with a nozzle, seems simple right? It is harder than it seems! Removing the outer dirt was simple enough and gave me a strange sense of satisfaction, rather like power washing dirt off of a car and making it all clean and sparkly.

Revealing an even magnetite layer without exposing any of the iron underneath it however requires a lot of patience and concentration – particularly where the magnetite is thin. I was having difficulties, but a discussion with one of the tutors soon sorted me out.

Some of the pieces arrived broken and many were cracked and on the verge of falling apart. I did my research and decided to repair using Epoxy-Resin to restore the objects’ original shape, and consolidate using Paraloid B72 in Acetone to prevent further breakages.

Epoxy-Resin: I used a 5 minute epoxy which is a two part adhesive – this means that it dries 5 minutes after mixing together so no hanging around!

Paraloid B72 in Acetone: Paraloid B72 is an adhesive soluble in acetone. Being dissolved in Acetone makes it easy to work with and on drying the acetone evaporates, leaving the Paraloid in place. It is a favourite in the lab!

And here we have it, a finished article ...

The same iron object after treatment.

This is a Bill Hook - the cleaning revealed the sharp edge on the outside and you can see where it was once attached to the handle

Below is my favourite, but most challenging object:

Modern Art, Modern Conservation

Most people might not think of modern art in conservation.  Usually restoring, preserving, and taking care of older, archaeological objects often comes to mind.  This is what I was thinking when I was assigned Lisa Krigel’s sculpture “Wardrobe” from the Newport Museum.

This beautiful ceramic sculpture is of a wardrobe with a female figure and all of her ceramic clothes hanging on the walls.  I admit that I was completely confused as to why I was repairing a piece that was only about ten years old.  That was when I did some research and discovered how incredibly awesome modern art conservation really is.  You actually get to talk to the artist!  Obviously this is not possible with ancient artefacts that need conserving so I was very excited about being able to have conservation input from the source of the art.

"Wardrobe" By Lisa Krigel complete in the lab after treatment.

The first thing that I did was test adhesives to check which one would work best in repairing the earthenware ceramic which the broken female figure was made out of.  I broke a plate and tested different adhesives as well as researched their characteristics.  Out of cellulose nitrate, Paraloid B-72, and epoxy resin, I decided the consistency and adhesion of the B-72 was ideal for my little three-legged female figure.

Taking good care of the female figure.

Another conservation skill that I got to learn with this piece was gap filling.  The back of the wardrobe had a small gap which I decided would be more aesthetically appealing to have filled for future display.  There was also a bit of corroded copper that was coming through from the inner frame that I wanted to protect.  I basically had to make a putty that would match the colour of the surrounding area and fill the gap.  This was easier said than done—I found out the hard way that a little bit of pigment goes a long way.  I used calcium carbonate and B-72 again (it’s so versatile!) to match the grainy, porous earthenware texture.  I then tried to match the pale pinkish colour of the wardrobe and instead created a giant mess of bright pink bubble gum coloured goo.  Unfortunately, I did not manage to take a picture of this disaster before I had help from my tutor to finally get the right colour for the gap fill.

After it dried, I decided that there were too many bubbles in my gap fill and I wanted to re-do it.  Luckily, B-72 is very easily reversed and I removed it straight away with acetone.  For round 2 I used epoxy as it doesn’t involve a dissolving solvent that would cause bubbles.  This worked out much better and the finished fill matched the rest of the back of the wardrobe very well.

Bubbles: Paraloid B-72 is an adhesive that is mixed with a solvent to get the right consistency for application.  So as the acetone in my gap fill evaporated, it left the B-72 behind as well as some un-appealing bubbles.

Spot the fill!

The main interesting conservation aspect of modern art is that it is… modern!  This means that as a conservator, you may not have to try and retain all the original material of the object as you can probably still get it or make it today.  Instead, priority is often given to making sure the modern art piece maintains the artist’s concept and meaning.  Sometimes, with modern art, display is more important than preservation for generations to come.

A first time for everything!

In the practical part of our course, we all received a metal coin, waterlogged wooden treenail and waterlogged leather to treat. This gives us valuable experience in how to treat these kinds of objects and encourages us to link theory with practical treatments.

Metal Coin

So we received our very first objects; a silver 1696 Sixpence for Sam and a Shilling for Tanya.

Both were tarnished and had adhesive and fibres stuck to one side.

At first, we spent the majority of the time just staring at them, wondering what on earth we were supposed to do and how everyone else seemed to know what they were doing. Eventually with some help from the tutors, we pulled ourselves together and started thinking logically.

The conservation requirement was to clean for display – remove the adhesive and fibres, and remove some of the tarnishing if necessary.

We had to figure out exactly what the problems were (adhesive, fibres, tarnishing) and how to solve them. There are a lot of solvents in the lab that can remove adhesives but we used acetone because research told us that it seemed to be the least harsh and most effective for the job.

Did you know? Nail varnish remover is made from Acetone and can be used to remove stubborn adhesives and tape!

Acetone and a cotton swab removed the fibres along with the adhesive - this was surprisingly effective and the removal was much quicker than either of us had expected. Two problems solved!

We also used a cotton swab with calcium carbonate in water to remove some (but not all!) of the tarnish to keep some of its evidence of use. This turned out to be more difficult – it is hard to get an even ‘old’ look without making super shiny spots. It was almost like using sandpaper to remove a very thin coating of tarnish.

And so here it is – one of our very first conserved objects!

Before

 After

Waterlogged Wooden Treenail

We then received waterlogged wooden treenails, recovered from Newport Ship. The conservation requirement here was different; these treenails are going to be handled by visitors to the museum. This meant that after treatment, it should still look and feel like wood (but dry!)

Waterlogged: When most of the spaces in an object have been filled with water, which is now supporting it. Waterlogged objects can come from underwater or burial.

Wet wood!

The first step in successfully drying waterlogged objects is to keep them wet! Removal of the water without replacing it will result in collapse. To prevent this collapse, we bulked (filled the spaces that needed support) our treenails with Polyethylene Glycol (PEG) before freeze-drying.

Fun fact: If you check your shampoos and/or body wash, you might find that there is PEG in there too!

Freeze-drying involved freezing the treenail before placing into a vacuum; the ice inside the wood then changed straight into vapour, missing out the liquid phase and leaving the PEG in its place as structural support.

When they came out of the freeze-drier, the treenails were nice and dry! 

Nice and dry!

Waterlogged Leather

Another waterlogged object we received were pieces of leather excavated from Bute Park outside Cardiff Castle. What look like scraps of leather are actually really awesome because it is a part of history from right outside of our lab!

Wet

You would think an acidic environment is bad, but leather is slightly acidic. This is why we checked the acidity of the water when we were storing them.

We then placed the leather in ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid—say that five times fast! It’s more commonly known as EDTA, a chelating agent that draws out potentially damaging metals from the leather.

We had to work out the percentage of glycerol in water we needed and used it in the leather in the same way that we used PEG for the waterlogged wood. We then shaped the leather into how we wanted it before freeze-drying.

Dry!

These were some of our group projects that we worked on alongside solo objects. So many objects, so little time! Stay tuned for more!

Touching Things

Whenever we walk around museums and galleries surrounded by unique pieces of art and historical archaeological artefacts, several things run through our minds.  We think about how things so old can survive for so long, how humans can create such beauty and genius, how culture and history can last through these objects—and how badly we just want to touch them all.  We want to grab pretty much everything we see in museums and just feel them.  How heavy are those Japanese printing blocks?  How smooth is that Roman marble statue?  How cool would it be to hold that skull?

            It is this deep longing to disregard every “Do not touch” sign that has led us to study conservation.  Cardiff University’s two year MSc in Conservation Practice lets us get up close and personal with the physical history and culture of the world.  Communities have a connection with their material culture that is emotional, educational, and preserves heritage.  As conservators, we work with this material culture from museums and collections making sure that they are stable and accurately maintained.  We study the objects, research treatments, we run tests on what is affecting the object, and generally take care of them.  We get to touch them allllllll over.

            This blog is going to show all of you the challenges, hilarities, and education that we go through as conservators.  Old stuff, art, science, and museums are all really cool—and we’ll bring it all together for you!

Here we are! Sam and Tanya!