Here are two striking and (I think) attractive Blechnum hard ferns. Nigrum is Latin for black.  Colenso’s hard fern is named after William Colenso – printer, missionary, politician, and naturalist – altogether a very extraordinary person.  Biography of William Colenso.  The “hard” part of the name comes, I presume, fromRead more

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110 years ago the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York visit New Zealand (10-27 June 1901) A royal tour of New Zealand was mooted by arch-imperialist Premier Richard Seddon in 1897, during the Diamond (60th) anniversary of Queen Victoria’s accession to the throne. By 1900, such a visit had assumed greater importance. ByRead more

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This week New Zealand in Vogue  was installed in the Eyelights gallery on the 4th floor. Its simple 1960s lines replaces the razzle dazzle of Enriching Fashion. As I mentioned in my last post on Wool Week, the exhibition is inspired by Vogue New Zealand, the pages of which haveRead more

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Image of Poedua in its frame immediately after it arrived at Te Papa. Photograph taken by Michael Hall. © Te Papa.

If you have been following Mel and Katherine’s Poedua treatment blogs you may be surprised to read another’s voice on this one – a voice from the edge as it were. I’m Matthew O’Reilly, Framer of Paintings here at Te Papa. My previous blogs were quite some time ago now. KatherineRead more

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In the paintings conservation lab, we have been working away steadily on the varnish removal of Poedua.  Every now-and-then we come across a painting where this stage of the treatment is relatively easy, where a simple organic solvent solution is effective in removing the varnish without any effect to anyRead more

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El Jay and Christian Dior

As the freshness of autumn turns into the chill of winter, it is time to dig out the winter woollies and the Ugg boots. Fittingly, this Friday kicks off ‘Wool Week’ (10-17 June).  We are thrilled that Mary-Annette Hay, the subject of Te Papa’s 2007 exhibition Queen of Wool and whose elegant all-wool wardrobeRead more

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The Torres Strait Islander Festival which happens once a year in Queensland, Australia, marks a rare opportunity to raise awareness of its important culture. The overall intent of the Festival is to celebrate the contemporary and historical culture of Torres Strait Islanders. The Queensland Museum exhibition Awakening: Stories from theRead more

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Westland Petrel, endemic to New Zealand on its breeding ground. Photograph by D Filippi

The advent of GPS in cell-phones and car navigation systems has done a lot to render this technology accessible for a variety of users, devices are now only 10-20 g in weight, and can cost as little as $100 a piece. Satellite telemetry was first used to study flying birdsRead more

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Uneven varnish under UV

Now that the painting has had its layer of surface dirt removed, the next step in the treatment is the removal of the varnish layer.  A lot of the principles that we talked about with surface cleaning, also apply to the removal of varnish layers.  Therefore, prior to beginning it’s importantRead more

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In our last post we discussed the process of testing to identify the most appropriate cleaning solution to remove the surface dirt layer from the painting. After finding the best cleaning solution for the painting the surface cleaning can begin, but we always carefully monitor our progress to ensure thatRead more

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