Imagine being handed a pile of several hundred year old flag remnants that had been gnawed and dissolved away by rodents and time. That was a task given to a conservationist working for the British Library Conservation Centre. Her task, preserve the remnants and conserve the flag. What would seem like an impossible task to an artist or a scientist became a manageable one by combining the two. This conservationist described how she used her understanding of textiles and sewing to understand the structure of the piece and the natural acidity of the materials used. She used that same information to determine which parts of the flag could be "washed" and which pieces could not withstand cleaning agents at all. In addition to her work in preserving the remnants, she also determined a method to create a replica of the original flag, so that the two could potentially be displayed along side each other. I'm not describing an artist, or a scientist. I'm describing both.
Perhaps textiles aren't your area of expertise. We saw a conservationist using a variety of binding techniques to rebind books in their original style. We also saw another conservationist who was cleaning pages of books of errant markings and dirt so that those pages could be scanned. She also looked for damaged areas that should be managed by a team of conservationist.
Maybe flags and books aren't in your area of interest either. In another area, we saw a conservationist completing a colossal jigsaw puzzle...of ancient Chinese scrolls.
While the image above is simply of materials sitting on shelves, each piece of material in those boxes has some fragility that is being shielded. Conservationists give life to those items that are so fragile that they shouldn't be handled anymore. In essence, they are Dr. Frankenstein without the moral dilemma. They take parts and pieces that used to form a fully functional, organic item and they breathe life back into that item. They salvage the unsalvageable and protect the fragile.
Perhaps textiles aren't your area of expertise. We saw a conservationist using a variety of binding techniques to rebind books in their original style. We also saw another conservationist who was cleaning pages of books of errant markings and dirt so that those pages could be scanned. She also looked for damaged areas that should be managed by a team of conservationist.
Maybe flags and books aren't in your area of interest either. In another area, we saw a conservationist completing a colossal jigsaw puzzle...of ancient Chinese scrolls.
While the image above is simply of materials sitting on shelves, each piece of material in those boxes has some fragility that is being shielded. Conservationists give life to those items that are so fragile that they shouldn't be handled anymore. In essence, they are Dr. Frankenstein without the moral dilemma. They take parts and pieces that used to form a fully functional, organic item and they breathe life back into that item. They salvage the unsalvageable and protect the fragile.