The Latymer Archive Project - Conservation Training Opportunity at Codex
It is always a pleasure to work with school archives and their associate communities. Latymer Upper School Archive in Hammersmith are approaching their 400th anniversary and are working hard to prepare their incredible account and minute books to exhibit and feature them as part of the celebrations.

A signficant number of the manuscripts are parchment laced stationery bindings which have varying degrees of mould damage. The worst is currently being treated in the Codex Workshop. With the support of the National Manuscript Conservation Trust, Codex Conservation is offering a part-time training opportunity to conserve some of the manuscripts.
Here is a link to the job advertisement, please send it around to anyone that you may think would want to apply. We are really looking for a recent graduate, someone who might be returning to work after or with caring responsibilities, or someone who would like to upskill, developing their project management and practical book conservation skills, maybe even preparing for professional accreditation.
Here is a link to the job advertisement, please send it around to anyone that you may think would want to apply. We are really looking for a recent graduate, someone who might be returning to work after or with caring responsibilities, or someone who would like to upskill, developing their project management and practical book conservation skills, maybe even preparing for professional accreditation.

Click here for the Job Description:
book_and_archives_conservator_job_ad_nov_22.pdf
Please feel free to contact me to find out more, via this website.
book_and_archives_conservator_job_ad_nov_22.pdf
Please feel free to contact me to find out more, via this website.
New Workshop in Crystal Palace - A New Home Sweet Home
It has been a real pleasure settling into the Codex Conservation workshop has moved to its new premises in Crystal Palace. It was a hard slog preparing the new space but it is a wonderful improvement as a purpose-built conservation studio. We have been welcoming clients old and new and the team and I are planning an open workshop afternoon in the coming months. Here are a few photos to whet your appetite...
Project Funding Success for Impact Heritage CIC - Training Opportunities Post-Covid
Over lockdown, I worked with 2 other wonderful and very experienced conservators to set up Impact Heritage CIC, a not-for-profit organisation to help develop conservation projects for community archives. It is an exciting project and Ruth, Ian and myself have been delighted with the success of our first major project was granted Arts Council England & Lottery Project Funding. We worked on a collection of 50+ Bibles for the Charterhouse Museum, with Samantha Hare, an emerging conservator, and Creative Writes, to provide online creative writing workshops inspired by the project. Following up from this, we wanted to create more training opportunities for recently qualified conservators, following the stalling of numerous internships during the Covid-19 pandemic. We have been working with HEPE, on the conservation of an amazing collection of Cornish diaries, that will be made available for public access through the Kresen Kernow, the Cornish regional archives. This project will provide training opportunities for 2 emerging conservators in the Sussex Consortium workshop early in 2023. To find out more about Impact Heritage follow this link: www.impactheritage.uk
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TV appearance on Quest's Salvage Hunters the Restorers

The filming of this episode began in the summer of 2020 so it was fantastic to see it go out as part of Series 4 (Episode 15) . Follow this link for a snippet of the action:
twitter.com/i/status/1425387308849713155
Let's hope that it leads to many more exciting opportunities.
twitter.com/i/status/1425387308849713155
Let's hope that it leads to many more exciting opportunities.
Specialist Lecture for Preservation Equipment Ltd.
It was my absolute pleasure to present an online talk for one of the leading conservation suppliers, Preservation Equipment Ltd. We had a really mixed group of interested attendees and the whole presentation is now available for free online:
www.preservationequipment.com/Blog/Blog-Posts/How-to-describe-book-bindings-Webinar
www.preservationequipment.com/Blog/Blog-Posts/How-to-describe-book-bindings-Webinar
Training...
Over the last few years, I have been developing various online training courses where participants are sent a prepared kit to make beautiful historic binding structures. These have included the parchment wallet stationery binding, the Chris Clarkson-inspired laced limp conservation binding, and the laced paper case binding. I have had the pleasure of working with binders and conservators from around the world, from Sweden to the US, creating bespoke courses for teams at the National Library of Scotland and the National Library of Singapore. It has been a huge pleasure not only making the bindings, but sharing their wider historic context with participants. I am hoping to offer a 5 day historic binding workshop as part of the Montefiascone Project in Italy this summer. More information and booking processes will be made available at monteproject.co.uk/en/ Here you can see the previous courses and find out more about the Project.
Completion of Dickens Fellowship Scrapbook Project funded by Arts Council England (ACE) & Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF)!I was hugely proud to accept the support of the ACE HLF Project Fund for Dickens Fellowship Archive Project – Enabling Access for the Future
This project was for the first phase of funding conservation and cataloguing of the scrapbook collections which are fundamental to the Charles Dickens Museum. It has allowed this previous unsearchable, and hugely significant collection to be available to scholars and enthusiasts around the world, via the online catalogue, in good time for the Museum’s centenary celebrations in 2025. The 97 volumes of Fellowship Scrapbooks date from 1905 to 1997 and contain newspaper cuttings on any Dickens-related topic, from national publications to provincial papers. They contain primary materials including advertisements for theatrical performances, newspaper cuttings (mainly British papers, with some American articles), photographs and paper ephemera and were compiled by members of the Dickens Fellowship who founded the museum. |
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This video is an in depth look at the full conservation of one of the Dickens Fellowship Scrapbooks. It covers all of the treatment steps giving you a rare glimpse into the conservation processes. This was an incredible collection to work on, and they can be accessed online via the Resources Section of the Charles Dickens Museum website. It is a joy to share my experience of these fascinating volumes.
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Parchment Bindings Lecture - Available Online

I have also given a lecture on the conservation of 4 parchment stationery bindings as part of the virtual training programme for the Archives & Records Association. I was in great company in this lecture series and the talks by Victoria Stevens and Katherine Beaty are a must for all those obsessed by parchment stationery bindings like me!
Here is the link to the video of my conservation of parchment stationery bindings video:
https://play.webvideocore.net/popapp.php?l=324413&w=720&h=800&p=4GE35AGFE12D4C4&title=Make%2C+Mend+%26+Do%E2%80%A6The+Conservation+of+4+Eighteenth-Century+Parchment+Stationery+Bindings&bgcolor1=%23ffffff&bgcolor2=%23e0e0e0&hide_playlist=&hide_description=&hide_live_chat=1&layout=default&is_inversed=&theme=light&image=https%3A%2F%2Fmember.streamingvideoprovider.com%2Fpanel%2Fserver%2Fclip%3Fa%3DGenerateThumbnail%26clip_id%3D0%26size%3Dlarge%26playlist_id%3D324413%26is_playlist%3D1%26segmentName%3Dsingle&use_html5=1&live_id=&sel_playlist=1g2ab52ge47574c&sel_multiplaylist=&is_responsive=1&is_vertical=&one_thumb_per_row=1&thumbs_size=medium&disable_hash=1&skinAlpha=50&colorBase=%23250864&colorIcon=&colorHighlight=%237f54f8&fs_popin=&start_volume=&close_button=&player_align=NONE&player_bar=1&auto_play=&auto_hide_player_controls=1&chat_position=&description_position=&playlist_position=&allow_fullscreen=1&player_start_volume=&widget_height_behavior=0&template_published_fields=-1&play_button=1&play_button_style=pulsing
Here is the link to the video of my conservation of parchment stationery bindings video:
https://play.webvideocore.net/popapp.php?l=324413&w=720&h=800&p=4GE35AGFE12D4C4&title=Make%2C+Mend+%26+Do%E2%80%A6The+Conservation+of+4+Eighteenth-Century+Parchment+Stationery+Bindings&bgcolor1=%23ffffff&bgcolor2=%23e0e0e0&hide_playlist=&hide_description=&hide_live_chat=1&layout=default&is_inversed=&theme=light&image=https%3A%2F%2Fmember.streamingvideoprovider.com%2Fpanel%2Fserver%2Fclip%3Fa%3DGenerateThumbnail%26clip_id%3D0%26size%3Dlarge%26playlist_id%3D324413%26is_playlist%3D1%26segmentName%3Dsingle&use_html5=1&live_id=&sel_playlist=1g2ab52ge47574c&sel_multiplaylist=&is_responsive=1&is_vertical=&one_thumb_per_row=1&thumbs_size=medium&disable_hash=1&skinAlpha=50&colorBase=%23250864&colorIcon=&colorHighlight=%237f54f8&fs_popin=&start_volume=&close_button=&player_align=NONE&player_bar=1&auto_play=&auto_hide_player_controls=1&chat_position=&description_position=&playlist_position=&allow_fullscreen=1&player_start_volume=&widget_height_behavior=0&template_published_fields=-1&play_button=1&play_button_style=pulsing
To accompany my publications and work on the Conservation of Parchment Bindings I have compiled a downloadable bibliography.

stationery_binding_1500-1800_july_20.pdf | |
File Size: | 204 kb |
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