Conservation Refresher Courses
Since the refresher course program began in the 1990’s, the Center has concentrated on providing intensive, hands-on workshops regarding conservation treatment or analytical techniques, with one or two instructors and a maximum of up to 12 participants. While the Center will continue to offer these smaller, hands-on workshops, over the next few years the Center will also be offering a number of conservation level seminars dealing with materials and media. These courses are intended as an update for conservators, and enrollment in the refresher course is limited to those with training and experience in the conservation of art and artifacts. Instructors are the final arbiters of whether prerequisites have been met.
Financial assistance is available from a number of sources: Friends, Pomerantz, Teeter Family, and the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works. For more information on scholarships go to:
COURSE LISTING
Book Repair Techniques for Special Collections
- Gilding Conservation
- Introduction to Organic Chemistry
- Mastering Inpainting
- Microchemical Analysis for Conservators
- Microscopy for the Identification of Pigments and Fibers in Art and Artifacts
- Revealing Lost Content: Low-Tech Digital Forensics for the Bench Conservator
- Traditional Gilding
- The Use of Bleaching Techniques in Paper Conservation
COURSE DESCRIPTIONS
Book Repair Techniques for Special Collections
Instructor: Olivia Primanis
During this workshop participants will practice conservation techniques for mending structures of original and early bindings. Methods for identifying structures, assessing deterioration and choosing repair techniques will be discussed. Problems that can arise from the repair of original structures and materials will be examined. Participants should bring cloth and leather books needing repair, preferably no later than early 20th century.
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Traditional Gilding
Instructor: Huber Baija
Traditional Gilding offers a combination of classes previously taught as Gilding I and Gilding II.
The focus of this course is on traditional gilding techniques. You will become familiar with one of the oldest crafts in the world, originating 4,500 years ago in ancient Egypt, which is still practiced today. Through presentations, demonstrations and hands-on practicum the participants will develop understanding of the basic gilding skills. In this class you will prepare your own mock-up frames and sample boards in different leafing techniques. We will work all the way from the bare wood to the finished product, including ornaments and special techniques for finishing and aging. This course will also offer a first orientation in the history of styles in picture frames. Topics included in this class are: a historical overview of traditional gilding materials, techniques and tools; surface preparation and the planned application glue, gesso, bole and size; gesso texturing and re-cutting; oil gilding and water gilding; application of gold, silver and metal leaf; burnishing; matte and gloss finishes; clay mixes and advanced leafing techniques; toning and aging and sealing.
Introduction to Organic Chemistry
Instructor: Sheila Fairbrass-Siegler
If you have forgotten the alkane series, are at a loss over functional groups and completely confused about acids and bases, then this course will gently guide you through the fundamentals of organic chemistry. The six day course is divided into morning lectures and discussion and afternoon practical, hands-on labs. Topics will include bonding and structure, functional groups, acids and bases, polymers, paper chemistry and textile chemistry.
Microchemical Analysis for Conservators
Instructor: Skip Palenik
Course description coming soon
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Microscopy for the Identification of Pigments and Fibers in Art and Artifacts
Instructor: Gary Laughlin
"In this course, students will learn the necessary skills for the visual characterization and identification of artists' materials by polarized light microscopy (PLM). The emphasis will be on the proper use of the microscope for the analysis of common paint pigments, textile fibers, and rock-forming minerals. Students will also learn sampling procedures and the use of flowcharts and keys to determine a positive identity for a wide variety of modern and historic materials. This one-week course is intended for amateur or professional conservators, art historians, and materials science enthusiasts. No prior microscopy experience is necessary."
The course is based on lectures, demonstrations, and laboratory practice. Each student learns each technique by hearing about it, watching it being done, and then doing it. Video is used extensively for macro- and micro-projection in both lecture and demonstrations. Each student is assigned a polarized light microscope and all necessary accessories, reagents, and text materials.
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Instructor: Hubert Baija
During this workshop we will explore the conservation and restoration of gilded and polychrome wooden objects. The participants are invited to bring a small project for analysis and hands-on experience, for example a picture frame, a statue, or a decorative carving. Ethical and technical aspects of specific conservation choices will be discussed. We will address the use of modern restoration materials on artifacts made with traditional techniques, with the aim to preserve as much original finish as possible, and to intervene in the most reversible ways, if at all. While Gilding Conservation builds on the understanding of traditional techniques taught in the Traditional Gilding course, this understanding is applied within the wider scope of conservation, in which every art object is respected as a unique source of information. In addition to practical work this class offers presentations on case studies in art historical context. Topics include: original finishes and later interventions; visual examination of gilded and polychrome surfaces and stereo microscopy; the role of cross sections; defining the aim of a possible treatment; agreeing with owners, clients or institutions on the treatment approach; documentation, condition reports and restoration reports; selecting specific materials and methods; consolidating gesso, gilding and polychromy; cleaning (balancing the ‘remedy and the disease’); reconstructing ornaments and surface textures; retouching; in-gilding ; integrating of repairs into the original. There will also be a further orientation in the history of picture frames and styles of ornamentation.
Participants should bring their favorite hand tools, brushes, work clothes, writing material, a camera and an object to work on. Materials are included in the tuition. Please inform the instructor beforehand of your project, for example with a photograph or a short description. Campbell Center, including the instructor, does not bear responsibility for items which participants bring to the course.
The Use of Bleaching Techniques on Paper Conservation
Instructors: Renate Messmer and Julie Biggs
Prerequisite: This program is designed for mid-career conservators. Applicants must submit resume or CV for instructor review and acceptance.
A variety of different bleaching methods can be used to treat discolored and stained paper. There are cases where bleaching may be the only way to achieve an acceptable degree of legibility or visibility of an artifact, or to restore an artist’s vision of a work on paper without the distraction of disfiguring stains and discoloration. In this workshop conservators will learn a variety of historical and contemporary bleaching methods and their appropriate uses: light bleaching, hydrogen peroxide, calcium hypochlorite, sodium borohydride, and borane tert-butylamine complex. These methods will be reviewed in the context of existing and current conservation theory, ethics, and practices. The course will focus on practical applications of different bleaching techniques and other non-bleaching options for stain reduction—both localized and overall treatments. Participants will perform, compare, and evaluate the techniques.
Participants are encouraged to bring sample materials to test the various techniques during the workshop sessions
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Revealing Lost Content: Low-Tech Digital Forensics for the Bench Conservator
Instructor: Hal Erickson
High-end forensics for the recovery of lost or obscured content can be an expensive proposition and may simply be an unaffordable luxury in many cases. When we observe evidence of such content, it is seldom immediately clear what degree of effort should be made in order to visualize it. Certain easy and inexpensive nondestructive forensic techniques can go a long way towards revealing the lost or obscured content, allowing owners, curators and/or institutional decision makers to better judge whether to invest more money and effort in further recovery efforts. These techniques are also useful during field surveys or in other on-site situations requiring a recommendation based on a quick examination, and can in many cases even be performed using nothing more than a pocket camera, common photographic filters and a laptop. In many cases, these “first-pass” forensic techniques may even be all that is needed to fully visualize the lost or obscured content. Indeed, it can be argued that these techniques should be a standard part of the pre- and post-treatment photodocumentation of many – if not most – treatments of manuscript materials and works of art on paper, if only to reassure future users that no obvious evidence of lost or obscured content was compromised by a treatment. Among the cases of obvious concern are: palimpsests (on parchment, vellum, papyrus, exotica);authorial erasures or fraudulent alterations;washed-away, delaminated, faded, bleached or otherwise lost content;content obscured by paste-downs;content on obscured binding materials (e.g. palimpsestic content on signature guards); marginal annotations, evidence of provenance, inter alia erased by dealers or previous owners.
The course will cover nondestructive low-tech methods for the visualization of lost or obscured content, and will allow attendees to practice these techniques using their own laptop and/or camera if brought to the course. Both 1) techniques for image optimization and 2) digital algorithms for feature extraction from digital images/scans will be covered. Some techniques are more conveniently performed within Photoshop, but we will also cover how to perform the techniques using freeware such as the National Institutes of Health-sponsored cross-platform software ImageJ.
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