Newsletter Issue Number:
AICCM National Newsletter No 146 June 2019

The University of Canberra has been busy in the past couple of months with Semester 1 in full swing, some highlights of which include:

The UC Heritage Lab welcomed two interns for Semester 1 2019, Maren Innes and Leah Graham. They are busy learning about the ins and outs of managing a conservation lab including, among other things: managing chemical waste, handling loans, managing collections and polishing their bench skills on archaeological copper on loan from Sydney.

Lisa Russ and Jacinta Sanders have been fully immersed in their Honours research projects – Lisa Russ is looking at conserving bespoke carpet samples within Parliament House and Jacinta Sanders is building the Pleco electrolytic pen, aiming to assess its reproducibility and reliability as a conservation tool.

Master of Arts in Creative and Cultural Futures student Rebecca Negri has continued her work on Aunty Hambrook, a complicated 18th century portrait; after removing the varnish and overpaint, and relining the painting, she is now undertaking the painstaking work of infilling missing areas in the heavily cracked and damaged work.

Aunty Hambrook pre treatment

Aunty Hambrook during treatment

Alison Wain has been recently awarded an ARC Linkage Grant as part of a team that is aiming to develop innovative laser cleaning processes to conserve the structural integrity and iconic status of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

This semester UC conservation students have also dipped their proverbial toes into the wonderful world of Wolbers’ gels, exploring new methods of cleaning their objects.