UV Huh! What is it good for?

Posted on 4 January 2020 by Gabriella Cortes

Ultra-violet (UV) light. What’s the first thing that springs to mind when you think about it? Those blacklights used in forensic crime dramas to reveal hidden clues? That episode of Friends with Ross and his blindingly whitened teeth? Or perhaps you’ve heard conservation horror stories about the dangers of UV light and how damaging it
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X-Rays Galore: Blackfriary Metal Finds

Posted on 3 January 2020 by Alice Blakely

Following excavations from 2010-2018, the Blackfriary metal finds travelled from Trim, Ireland to Cardiff University in January 2019 for conservation. I was assigned the objects at the beginning of this term and was tasked with their preliminary understanding. I will eventually devise a treatment plan for these objects. For those that do not know much
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Pathways to Conservation

Posted on 29 October 2019 by Caitlin Jenkins

It’s a rumour that we all found our calling as conservators from an early age, fuelled by a desire to disobey those DO NOT TOUCH signs in museums. At Cardiff University, our students’ paths into the heritage sector are as unique and diverse as the objects we study. In this blog, six students share their
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Documenting the Dispatched: A Case Study on the Preservation of Two Welsh Plaster Cast Copies

Posted on 10 June 2019 by Alyssa Singh

A rough draft of a developing idea, artists use maquettes for structural planning, testing forms, and determining the feasibility of a finished statue. But what is to be done with them afterward? While most maquettes end up in the scrap heap of history, occasionally some are preserved to the present. As a sort of 3D
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A tale of mystery mould and cautious culturing – part two

Posted on 30 April 2019 by Katherine List

If you missed the first part of my blog post, you can read it here. Treatment – Stage Two The brush vacuuming had removed much of the visible mould on the basket and I needed to determine the next stage of treatment. The use of a 70% ethanol/water solution is common ‘to kill and disrupt
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A tale of mystery mould and cautious culturing

Posted on 30 April 2019 by Katherine List

The following object started off as a bit of a mystery, fully wrapped in tissue paper and plastic sheeting, labelled as covered in mould, and described in the paperwork as a basket from Bristol Museum, previously in the British Empire and Commonwealth collection. As a conservator I use my senses to investigate the objects that
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Feeling conflicted

Posted on 31 March 2019 by Eleanor Sweetnam

Before I begin, I must say that this blogpost is merely a discussion centred around my initial thoughts at the beginning of the conservation process of a British military uniform. I very much enjoy a lengthy debate about an object’s significance, but I must say that it becomes very different when that discourse becomes a
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Skilling up

Posted on 14 January 2019 by Mandy Garratt

As conservation students here at Cardiff, we learn a wide variety of skills; not only honing the techniques required to conserve objects, but those which will help us when we are fully-fledged conservators. Our degree programmes help us to master skills such as digital photography and Photoshop, we use a large range of scientific equipment,
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Dissertations Abound

Posted on 22 February 2018 by Stephanie Whitehead

Studying the Effect of Varying Silica Gel Amounts on the Relative Humidity Within a Container. Our dissertation is looking at the relative humidity (RH) changes within storage containers that have different amounts of silica gel within them so that we can see if the amount of silica gel affects the RH. -Will Smith, Mary Lawrence,
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What to Expect the First few Weeks

Posted on 16 September 2017 by Stephanie Whitehead

Congratulations and welcome to our new Cardiff University conservation students! We couldn’t be more happy to have you. While we look forward to meeting you I am sure most of you are wondering: What happens next? You’ve packed your suit cases. You’ve bought your plane ticket or crammed all of your things into your car.
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