MA Conservation Studies: Books and Library Materials student Maria Borg, alongside her colleague Nayla Maaruf, worked on the conservation of a Cartes-de-Visite Victorian photo album. Find out more about the project in this blog post.

Book conservators are often faced with the challenge of working with unfamiliar, idiosyncratic, and complex books. In such cases making a model of a binding can be of great benefit and insight into previous binding practices. This is especially true when presented with a book found in a fragmented state.

Zora Sanders takes us through her investigation into a mysterious knife; as she tries to uncover its origins and purpose.

When I began my studies in Metalwork Conservation at West Dean last October, the first object I was given to treat appeared to be a fairly ordinary knife. Which just goes to show that looks can be deceptive....

One of the items I treated this year was a late 19th Century Victorian scrapbook. The scrapbook was made for a child and the contents directly reflect this. It was filled with clippings from magazines, stickers, poems that referenced children stories, animals, and other imagery which might have appealed to a child at the time. Additionally, it was filled with elaborate, original artwork by the woman who created it...

MA student, Wendy Richardson, gives us an insight into the benefits of studying her part-time MA in Collections Care and Conservation Management here at West Dean College of Arts and Conservation...

As a final year student in the Books and Library Materials Conservation Studies course at West Dean, my usual focus is upon 'book and paper materials'. However, last term I was fortunate to work with the West Dean Collections team as they kitted out their new 'salvage trailer'...

Catherine tells us about her lifelong passion for building conservation, and how others can pursue their interest and achieve qualifications here at West Dean College.

In a previous post I described the initial stages of my research in the properties and preparation of wheat starch paste. Here I will continue with an outline description of the quantitative and qualitative tests my paste samples were subjected to, in order to identify which parameters might influence the properties of paste.

Deciding which course of treatment to take on an object can be a near-impossible task, and even after I've finished working on a clock and it's ticking away happily on a test stand, I'll still be wondering if there was something I should have done slightly differently...