2015’s two-day ICON Ceramics and
Glass Group conference was held in Worcester with a good demographic
of around forty delegates in attendance. Conservators from the museum
sector and private practice attended as well as students from many of
the conservation courses throughout the UK.
The first day
started with a trip to the Royal Worcester Porcelain Museum where we
a received a talk from Master Potter Roger Green who explained the
design, development and casting process used by Royal Worcester to
create their figurines. Following this the group was given a tour of
the museum (the world’s largest collection of Royal Worcester
porcelain) by the great Henry Sandon of Antiques Roadshow fame! This
was one of the highlights of the conference, his knowledge is second
to none and his enthusiasm and love for porcelain are infectious.
The second day of the conference
comprised of presentations from both practicing conservators and
students. All of the talks were highly informative, however, there
were some standouts among the group. Jerrod Seifert, student at
Cardiff University gave an excellent presentation on the use of
enzymes for adhesive removal on ceramics. Peter David, a private
ceramics conservator regaled the audience with the story of an
exceptionally hot gallery (120oF), the havoc it wreaked on
the adhesive holding shelves of ceramics in place and the subsequent
conservation works that were undertaken to repair the damage caused
when the shelves decided to take a southerly journey.
Two colleagues and I, from the
University of Lincoln gave our first ever conference presentation
regarding the conservation and restoration of some replica terracotta
warriors and the digital replication of a missing warrior head.
Digital copies of most of the presentations are available through the
ICON website. To summarise the two days, I drank a lot of tea, met
many lovely people and learned a great deal; it was thoroughly
enjoyable and interesting two days.
Written by Anna Stone, MA student at
the University of Lincoln.
