Earlier this year, Beckett Thornber (@stitchteeth ), an MA Conservation Studies student, specialising in books and library materials at West Dean College (@westdeancollege ), spent six weeks in our Conservation Department as a Student Visitor.
Beckett worked closely with the team as they prepared for our current exhibition, Curious Cures, and undertook some excellent work with Senior Conservator Deborah Farndell on a fascinating folded manuscript in the Pepys Library at Magdalene College (@magdlibs ).
You can find out more about Beckett’s research in a new post on our Special Collections blog, Curious Cures: the making of a medieval folded manuscript.
Link in bio above ⬆️
#CambridgeUniversityLibraries #CULconservation #PracticeBasedResearch #BookConservation #ConservationResearch
ALT TEXT:
1. A folded paper manuscript in a bespoke leather holder
2. A close-up photograph of a Beckett sewing together the folded paper manuscript with a needle and thread
3. Photograph of illustrated folded almanack by Kristine Rose-Beers. Reproduced with the kind permission of the Pepys Library, @magdalene .
4. A preview image of Beckett's blog post (link in bio!)
Made some book clasps, guided by the wonderful @tiestasslesandtoggles , for our Gothic bindings. This is the first time I've properly worked with metal, and it's been excitingly challenging for hands used to working with way softer materials!
#bookclasps #bookfurniture #fishclasp (sort of) #bookbinding #bookart #brass #gothicbinding #medievalgothic
🔎 Magnification of some extremely friable iron gall ink on my bench this week, from a 16th/17th century parchment document confirming the sale of a meadow in Staffordshire. Very cool seeing how much the surface of the parchment differs underneath inked areas!
#irongallink #parchment #conservation #conservationstudies #magnification #bookconservation #paperconservation
Cover for a coptic binding workshop taught by the lovely John Mumford - can't wait to get this on my book next week! ✨️
#copticbinding #bookbinding #bookart #leathercraft #leathertooling #parchment
In my second week of work placement with the Conservation team at @cambridgeuniversitylibrary and having a blast!
So far I've been doing paper repairs, removed vast quantities of rusty metal from a collection of 1970's business documents, made isinglass, learnt about the CUL's environmental monitoring systems, helped deinstall an exhibition, made models of folded manuscript structures, and prepared cradles for an upcoming exhibition - phew!
#cambridgeuniversity #cambridgeuniversitylibrary #conservationstudies #conservation #bookconservation #paperconservation #westdeancollege
Leather onlay sample featuring the maril leather technique, developed by Philip Smith. Thank you @markbookartist for the wonderful demonstration!
#leatheronlays #leatherart #marilleather #marbledleather #philipsmith #bookart #bookbinding
Closeup on some of those repairs mentioned in the previous post - remoistenable 3.5gsm tissue and isinglass adhesive on 19th century tracing paper
#tracingpaper #paperrepair #paperconservation #isinglass
Tracing paper, flattened and repaired with remoistenable tissue and isinglass. This is one of a set of very lovely late 19th century architectural plans, which we've been working on as a mini group project. 🏠
#tracingpaper #architecturalplans #victorianarchitecture #isinglass #irongallink #paperrepair #paperconservation #westdeancollege #conservationstudies
Paper repairs and stabilisation on a couple of pieces of incredibly fine onion skin paper, using remoistenbale tissue to avoid overly damping the iron gall ink.
#westdeancollege #paperrepair #bookconservation #paperconservation #irongallink #onionskinpaper #conservationstudies
Limp parchment binding completed during a workshop with the wonderful Shaun Thompson (@tiestasslesandtoggles )
Used a scrap piece of buffed (and slightly creased) parchment for the cover - very lovely to hold, although it picks up dirt if you even breathe near it!
#limpvellumbinding #limpparchmentbinding #parchment #vellum #bookbinding #alumtawed #bookconservation #conservationstudies #westdeancollege
