You’ve probably seen forensic scientists on TV taking swabs and fingerprints from crime scenes. They aren’t wearing labcoats, hairnets and gloves to look cool but to prevent them contaminating their forensic evidence with their own DNA. But how do scientists deal with items that are already contaminated with unwanted humanRead more
Witchy tale In 1936, the Dominion Museum was given a gift so rare and strange that it made the news. Described in the Auckland Star and in museum records as a “witch doctor’s outfit”, the garment was subsequently displayed for many years in the Buckle St building that opened thatRead more
Recently I completed a two year project to conserve a unique Micronesian textile. It was such a pleasure to get acquainted with this very rare object with distinctive features–I was amazed to see that the colour changes in the patterned end of the cloth had been created by either interlinking or knotting warps of two colours together (photomicrograph image below),Read more
As an art conservation student, I was frequently encouraged by my tutors to think of my profession as a three-legged stool—a platform supported by the three disciplines of connoisseurship, fine arts, and science. Understanding the science of how materials age is critical for being able to slow down deterioration. In addition,Read more
