Year: 2016

There are many methods used to secure the falling of pieces right in the beginning , before we start with other treatment procedures of conservation. These methods are extremely helpful as they allow the conservators work with more confidence while…

Gold and Silver gilding techniques have evolved over the centuries. We love to apply gold and silver on surfaces like, wall plaster, stone, wood, metal, paper and textile. During my visit to the Calico Museum, i was amazed to see…

Rust was all we could see on the day we first saw Ulysses by Sri Satish Gujral and rust was what we had to struggle with, for nearly a month! In spite of all the struggle and initial confusion about…

The temple i am discussing these days is unique in many ways. One major point of interest is its paintings that have such a diversity. Mythological stories and characters (apart from the Gods also), Kings, Sikh guards, British warriors, Train,…

Life is beautiful and hard at the same time. This temple whose walls stood the ravages of time, survived in the middle of a jungle to tell the story of its time. How artistic, full of character and co-existing humans…

Camera fails to capture what eyes see here….. The place i am sitting right now is the place where our Gurus used to meditate.It is the first floor of Sri Harmandar Saheb Ji. It is truly meditative. One tends to…

Should a fresco painting like this be left as such with the graffiti overpowering the original beauty of the art work, or should it be treated meticulously subduing the damage bringing out the original beauty of the painting? We find…

Namita Jaspal Wall paintings: Tough decision making Beautiful wall paintings of sacred Sri Harmandar Saheb Ji were flaking off and crumbling when a professional advice was at last sought in 2013. Till 2013, these paintings were retouched or repaired by…

Sikh art developed around middle of nineteenth century. It has  borrowed extensively from Hindu and Muslim traditions and art forms but depicted them in their own way and in a new setting. Not much research has been done on this…

Earning sheer Joy out of work!!

The vice regal dinning car built by Ajmer workshops of the BB & CIR (Bombay, Baroda and central India railway) in the year 1889 is juxtaposing the luxurious special rail carriage used by the Viceroy of India then during his…

It was a unique experience restoring the monorail at National Rail Museum in 2013. Not only the structure was restored, it was made functional too and we all took a ride on the day of inauguration.    

Namita Jaspal Some two decades back, (i) was not so good and patient with writing stuff, but the study and research that i pursued was unique and real hard work. That time, was not keen on getting pictures of myself…

Cracks in the paint layer are a usual observation in case of Oil on Canvas paintings. They are generally due to ageing and the oil content and composition. This particular video discusses an unusual case where the cracks are mainly…

While preserving old acidic and brittle paper, we come accross torn areas that need transparency in the mending material used because of the text or illustrations, and there are torn areas like corners or edges where transparency is not required…

Janam Saakhi is basically the story of life of Guru Nanak Dev Ji. This particular Janam Saakhi that we treated in our lab seems to be from eighteenth century copy hand written and illustrated by a very interesting artist with…

We at Heritage Preservation Atelier, keep detailed records (paper documentation and video clips) of condition and treatment of the collection or objects. Following pictures are about records of a Photograph Conservation Project: Following is an example of one informal video…

Conservation of an object that is an integral part of the culture of a village and  is a pride possession of the villagers who have protected it for centuries, calls for a lot many additional considerations in decision making for…

Transparency about the treatment procedures is what we strive for. But, this is not always so easy when you are sharing info with people who are trying to judge without paying attention to the details of the science and many…

Namita Jaspal At first look, one finds damaged, broken tile work and might think of replacing the broken tiles. But, on closer examination and assessment, we find that the broken tiles cannot be taken out without damaging the strength of…

This monument, a temple and the paintings adorning the walls … hundreds of years old…. These are non-living, but full of life. They speak of the love, respect, tolerance, peace, humility and most of all co-existence of different faiths or…

Very gratifying experience conserving these mesmerizing paintings from nineteenth century……..

Namita Jaspal Tile work at the gates of Mughal Sarai, Doraha, are quite unique in their make.  They seem to be made with a technique that was popularly known as Kashi work. Kashi work consists of a layer of glass…

Art and Heritage conservators, work on various kinds of materials. Surfaces like lime mortar, paper, fabric, canvas, wood, metal etc. We use technology to study the properties of the material, their deterioration and ageing, protection, cleaning and curative treatments. We…

We have found two different kind of anatomy and material composition in the wall paintings of the same built structure. The extent of deterioration over the last century and a half might say a lot about the durability of the…

Textile_Conservation_A_case_study_of_Cho(1)

There can be different views about keeping or discarding a damaging mount-board or backing. It can be great if we can share our ideas. This an old video, but i found it relevant even today when we receive similar problems…

Inappropriate material used for restoring paintings can cause deformities like these in near future.

Of all the conservation experiences the one that has taught most is the one at Sri Harmandar Saheb Ji (The Golden Temple). There is so much to talk about this work experience that we’ll take it up in parts. It…

A telephone call from an organization regarding their concern over the insect infestation in the building where they had one of their precious textile collection stored, was the beginning of this work-plan. To be sure about what i am suggesting…