ITP 2013: August 27- Freda Nkirote
Conservation and Security day
Today was another one of those days when we get to see what the other visitors to the British Museum do not have a chance to see! We had the rare opportunity of seeing the conservators working on metals and other materials like glass, ceramics, stones, mosaic, wood, feathers, paintings and paper.
Glass & Ceramics conservation
Some of these objects were being prepared for exhibitions others for travelling and others for storage. The experience was overwhelming! It was amazing to learn how long and what it takes to clean a coin or a bronze object from an excavation or how much patience is required to conserve Chinese and Japanese paintings which by the way are usually restored on tailor-made tables. The vocabularies of the day were PARALOID B72 and JAPANESE TISSUE! These magic words were repeated in almost every conservation room!
The showstopper was the paintings/oriental art conservation space where we had to remove our shoes and one of our colleagues realized that he had worn two different socks! I will not name names but that was quite hilarious! The culprit is one of the 7 below! make your guess…
Oriental art conservation
In the afternoon, the head of security at the British museum delivered a very interesting lecture in a very interactive way. We learnt the basics of museum security in 20minutes and we promised to put these into practice as soon as we are appointed to the position of ‘museum director’ in our various institutions!
IT WAS A DAY WELL SPENT!