From 13th to 15th April 2016, the postgraduate students of Books & Library Materials Conservation took ourselves off to the University of Copenhagen to attend the sixteenth Care and Conservation of Manuscripts conference.

How would you like to meet around 100 contemporary designer makers in person? Talk to the people who create beautiful and unique items by hand about their inspiration, the materials they source and choose for their work and the techniques and skills involved.

Originally intended by James as a vessel to support images of the surreal, Artichoke House 2014 and its camera obscura, supports a different kind of image, one that alludes to the past, relative to its specific location, but is always operating in a reversed present.

It's not exaggerating to use language like 'meeting the maker' and 'died and gone to heaven', honest. When this early twentieth century Japanese cigarette case was shown to me, I had to work on it.

After completing the MA in Conservation Studies at West Dean, I served as an assistant for six weeks in the conservation studio of Michael Parfett in London. Michael works primarily on harps, harpsichords and frames, and the short work placement offered the opportunity to gain experience in conserving musical instruments, decorative surfaces and gilding.

A first job after graduating took me towards the conservation of sculptures---a discipline I studied back in Portugal and which, in combination with what I had learned at West Dean, proved successful.