My first and most enduring project since joining the West Dean College Ceramics Conservation Department has been the tobacco leaf platter. It is through this object that I have learnt most of the skills that I will take away at the end of my graduate diploma year.
Much to my surprise, the second object that arrived on my bench in the Book Conservation Department was not a book at all, but a nineteenth-century French carriage clock travelling box.
One of the main attractions of the Ceramic Conservation course at West Dean College was the unique and fantastic opportunity of being able to work on "real" objects.
Masterclass from Museums and Heritage show in London last week, by Shayne Rivers MA (RCA), FIIC, MA Collections Care and Conservation Management (CCCM) Subject Leader, and PhD researcher.
Shayne's masterclass explored the following questions and offered an insight into CCCM at West Dean College.
The aim of this project was to restore to safe working order a Japanese lantern clock belonging to the Russell-Cotes Art Gallery & Museum. The Museum's early records had classified the clock as Chinese. However, after conducting initial research it became clear that the object conformed to many stylistic features of lantern clocks from the early - mid period of Japanese clock making.
In book conservation we often have to face situation where the handling, opening and consultation of a book could cause irreversible damage. We have to find solutions to both protect the book as an historical object and to restore its usability as a repository of knowledge.
The Silver Swan automaton conserved by Matthew Read, Conservation of Clocks Programme Leader at West Dean College, makes its debut at Robots the new blockbuster exhibition at the Science Museum.
Sussex Modernism: Retreat and Rebellion a major new exhibition, is created by the Bulldog Trust in partnership with nine Sussex museums and galleries, including West Dean College.
Our first assignment in the West Dean furniture conservation program: hand-plane a square piece of wood into a tapered column, break it, and put it back together.
Last winter, a few of us from the books department decided to go for a little hike one weekend and found ourselves walking through some woodland about half an hour from the school. One of the group came across an antler, which she wasn't too keen on keeping, so I thought I'd take it back to school and have a go at making some custom bone folders.
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