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 removing the surface accumulations that are damaging as well as obscuring the art work and other relevant details. allow safe movement of the artifact while … Continue reading Securing the flaking off pieces
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 the gold work on textiles in so many different ways. In my years of experience as a conservator, i myself have studied gold application techniques … Continue reading Gilding
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 whats beneath the rust, the whole process of treating Ulysses was educating and a wonderful experience. We learnt so much more about how artists think … Continue reading Ulysses gets rid of rust before restoration
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, …all in adjacent walls or even same wall.. Can someone throw light on this war depicted on a wall of this temple? This tells a … Continue reading Temple coming out alive
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 of its time were. What happened to the beauty? What happened to the harmony? When did the deterioration start? It also throws light on the … Continue reading Wall painting conservation
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 forget the worldly chaos. The paintings that we see here were executed in mid twentieth century, but they followed similar style in which earlier frescoes … Continue reading Sri Harmandar Saheb Ji
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 so many historical sites in India where such heartless damage is done by some irresponsible citizens among us. Being a conservator, i feel that at … Continue reading Conservation/restoration Challenge: Graffiti
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 random staff or artists. They would just touch up the white areas left by flaked off paint. More damaging has been such touch up over … Continue reading Sri Harmandar Saheb Ji
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 highly developed form of art which has its own class. I know of very few references and one PhD thesis on the art work of … Continue reading Sikh Art- Sri Harmandar Saheb Ji
Earning sheer Joy out of work!! Continue reading Vice Regal Dining Car, Restoration Project and a scene from ‘Ki and Ka’
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 travel around the country. This wooden bodied dinning car was part of a five-car Vice regal train. The car bears a striking white enamel finish. … Continue reading Vice Regal Dining Conservation
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. Continue reading Patiala Monorail Restoration
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 clicked, so not much of Pictorial/Photographic record. A part of my independent research was later published in 2002 when i presented it in a conference. … Continue reading Old Research on Paper infecting Microbes
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 localized to the region that revealed many fungal colonies at the back of the canvas. Continue reading Cracks in a canvas painting due to Fungal growth
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 as much as the strength to bear handling.. We have perfect solutions for both.. Continue reading Mending
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 his style imprint spread all over the paintings. We at Heritage Preservation atelier have some interesting details from the observations during assessment of condition of … Continue reading Conservation of a Janam Saakhi
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 clip. Continue reading Types of Records we keep of Conservation Projects
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 conservation methodology. Conservation of such object of faith requires involvement of community and religious bodies for decision making at various stages. It is a challenge … Continue reading Chola Saheb Ji: Bandi Chhod
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 interrelated issues. At times we do come across people and teams that are more curious and keen to learn without any bias. Here , discussions … Continue reading Open and healthy discussions are fun and Welcome
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 the mosaic pattern and the structure. So, we had to look out for some in-situ strengthening methodology that would consolidate the structure while restoring the … Continue reading Lab-work for on-site project
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 should we say different chapters of the (ultimate) faith. How, with time, we travel into the diverging paths, and not only forget the core of … Continue reading Panj Mandir: Another example from bygone era speaking of oneness, co-existence, love and mutual respect
Very gratifying experience conserving these mesmerizing paintings from nineteenth century…….. Continue reading Krishna Temple :Beauty of what is left
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 spread on a hard kind of plaster; sometimes on a material porcelaneous in structure. The glass was found to be an ordinary silicate colored by … Continue reading CONSERVATION OF MUGHAL SARAI, DORAHA: Tile Work
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 are at times involved in unique decision making situations where we have to do conservation of a faith and intangible cultural heritage rather than the … Continue reading Conservation Science is a unique combination of Art, Technology, History and Science…
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 different materials. We have just started working here and the study and research in next few months is expected to provide some concrete results.. Continue reading Research prospects: Durability and Anatomy of the wall painting
Textile_Conservation_A_case_study_of_Cho(1) Continue reading Conservation of Chola Saheb Ji
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 in case of photograph collections. Continue reading What to do about damaging acidic mountboard of old photographs
Inappropriate material used for restoring paintings can cause deformities like these in near future. Continue reading Importance of knowledge of the Conservation material used
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 can be a guide for those who are interested in art, heritage, religiousness and conservation and preservation of all of these. We encourage a discussion … Continue reading Experience at Sri Harmandar Sahib Ji
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 my clients and to be accurate in my knowledge about the latest research in the area, i read almost all the relevant material that was … Continue reading Anoxic Treatment of Textile Collection
