And I am now excited to introduce our final speaker of the day. We're here. We made it Katie Schulman. Katie first learned about art conservation in a high school art history class. And from there, it was no looking back. She interned at several conservation labs in California and graduated from Scripts College with a BA in Art Conservation. One of her semesters in college was spent at Sachi, the Studio Art School International in Florence, Italy. After graduation, Katie Philadelphia, where she worked for several years in the conservation labs at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Barnes Foundation. The PMA is really featuring heavily here today. It was these internships that solidified Katie's love of objects and all the variety of challenges the specialty presents, as she wrote in her bio for wood pack, from an Olivetti typewriter to a porcelain fashion doll for Katie, she knew she was destined to study objects conservation at Woodpeck. We couldn't have been happier to have her. Katie's time at graduate school has been impressive in every way. Showcasing stunning hand skills, prolific research, and sharing through professional and public outreach opportunities. Her first summer internship brought her back to California and the Young Museum in San Francisco, where she worked in the Objects Lab under conservators Jane Williams and Coleen O'shea in her second year at winter. So highlights included stabilizing a very flaky Tom and Jerry animation cell. Tricky filling. And in painting of a luster ware, porcelain soup rein, that also required a specialized mount. Also made by the artist who made the fly that L treated. Those are tricky sculptures. And a study of innovative film materials for glass conservation, and an aging study of agar bioplastic. After her second summer internship at the Art Institute of Chicago, working with Rachel Sabino and Lisa Ackerman, Katie moved to Baltimore to complete her third year internship in the Objects Conservation Lab at the Walters Art Museum, which is also featured heavily today. The Katie's work has been no less impressive, completing an astounding array of projects and activities under the supervision of objects conservators Angie Elliott and Greg Bailey. I can't wait to hear her tell us all about it. Katie is a caring and conscientious heritage conservator who was born to do this work. I believe it's in her bones. Just like she can put back together any broken object and make it look whole again. She too, can bring order to chaos by grounding herself and others around her too, to move forward and achieve great things. And where she's moving next is back to California, where she'll bring her amazing talents to the J Paul Getty Museum as our postgraduate intern in the Decorative Arts and Sculpture Lab. Katie, the floor is yours. Thank you, Lauren for that kind introduction and to all of you in the audience for sticking around and hanging in here. My name is Katie Schulman and I'll be presenting on my second summer at the Art Institute of Chicago and my third year at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore. I'd like to begin by acknowledging that not only did I spend the past year living and working on the traditional homelands of many native peoples, but have done so throughout my conservation career in a variety of cultural institutions across North America. As a conservator, I have a deep love for museums and believe wholeheartedly in the principle of preserving cultural heritage for future generations. However, it is important to acknowledge and remember that many cultural institutions are built on lands and filled with objects taken from their original inhabitants by people who often do not understand or appreciate their true significance and value. As cultural heritage professionals, we have a responsibility to strive for better practices and interactions with indigenous communities. I spent my summer in Chicago on the unseated ancestral homeland of the Ojibwa, Ottawa and Pottawatomie nations. I spent my third year in Baltimore, which occupies the ancestral lands of the Piscataway and Susquehanna nations, But has also become a home to members of other tribal nations. Most notably the Lumb. Members of these many native communities continue to contribute to the life of their cities, celebrate their heritage, practice traditions, and care for their land and waterways. Over the course of my second summer and third year internships, I treated a wide variety of objects made of many different materials, ranging from wood to limestone, copper alloy to glass and lacquer to porcelain. Today I will focus on three treatments selected from the numerous projects I worked on over the past year. So after wrapping up my second year at Winter, I made the move to Chicago for a summer in the Objects Lab at the Art Institute. The Art Institute of Chicago is located downtown in Grant Park, and was founded in 18 79 as one of the oldest and largest museums in the world, housing a collection that spans centuries and the globe. The permanent collection contains nearly 300,000 works of art and is supplemented by 30 exciting special exhibitions each year. The Art Institute also boasts an impressive conservation and conservation science department. With such a robust and diverse collection, I was able to work on many different projects. I started off small, both literally and figuratively, treating some teeny tiny objects from the Thorn Miniature Rooms. 68 miniature Rooms designed by Narcissa Thorn. They're full of tiny objects. Furniture, you name it, it's there. These were straightforward treatments, but were a fun challenge and a good way to keep up my hand skills. It still boggles my mind that someone was able to create such incredibly detailed pieces, many of which are smaller than a Bobby Pin. I also spent some time condition reporting and carrying out treatments on numerous Nepalese objects for an upcoming gallery rotation, which allowed me to experience firsthand the interdepartmental collaboration required to mount an exhibition. I also assisted with photography, condition reporting, and minor treatments for an upcoming language of beauty in African art exhibition, a joint show between the Art Institute and the Kimball Museum of Art. Lastly, one particularly memorable experience was getting to see the Michigan Avenue Lions up close and personal, when they were removed from their places of honor, outside of the entrance, and taken outside for treatment. Well, I'm not from Chicago, my family is, and I have so many happy childhood memories of visiting these lions. It was such a treat to see these amazing sculptures up close and to learn more about their treatment. But on to my main treatment, my main project over the summer was of this sev porcelain plate pictured here. With my interest in decorative arts, taking an object for the impending Applied Arts of Europe gallery reinstallation seemed like the perfect choice for me. So let's dig into this plate. The plate was created by the Sev Porcelain Manufactory, which was established in 17 40 in Vincennes, France, and then moved to a new factory in Sev in 17 56. Sev was often chosen to commission royal and diplomatic gifts, such as this plate, which derives from the extensive dinner service gifted by Louis the 16th to Joseph Second of Austria, the Holy Roman Emperor. While one might argue that the front of the plate is the most exciting part, the back is also of great interest as it contains some unique symbols that provide good contextual information. The interlocking L mark, seen at the far right, indicates the sev manufactory. The Z inside of this indicates the year of production, 17 77, and the P indicates the painter, Jean Jacques Pierre Lejeune. So when the plate arrived at my bench, it was stable and in fair condition. The most significant condition issue was the prior restoration of one of the three cartouches in ultra violet light. You can see the extent of the restoration more clearly. Note how the over paint extends to the left and right of the central cartouche, obscuring any original painted and gilt decoration. The first part of my treatment entailed addressing this area. After conducting solvent testing, I determined that a combination of acetone and ethanol was best suited for removal of the restoration and was able to do so with relative ease. With the restoration removed, I turned to loss compensation. I chose to execute an epoxy color fill for this large loss. So I bulked textile epoxy with fumed silica. I mixed in titanium white pigment to achieve the desired translucency, and then tinted with other dry pigments to achieve the desired color. Once cured, I shaped and smoothed the fill so that it would provide the perfect foundation for my painting. Here you can see the area of loss with the original fill at the left after the fill was removed at the center, and with the new epoxy fill in place at the far right to determine what approach I would take toward painting the missing floral and leaf elements. I had many discussions with our curator. While there are many similar plates from the service in existence, even many in the Art Institute collection, each of these is hand painted and the floral motifs utterly unique. So there was nothing I could use for an exact comparison. We decided to loosely mimic the design in the over paint that I had just removed, hoping that that design resembled the original or was at least a close approximation. I in painted the fill using gold and fluid acrylics and in gilded select areas of the fill with gold leaf applied over an oil size. Here you can see a detail of the fill after treatment. Here you can see the entire plate before, during, and after. This treatment was extremely satisfying to complete. I enjoyed the opportunity to execute Txt fill, a technique I learned last year at Winterter and I'm always trying to perfect. I so enjoyed the fast paced, exhibition driven environment of the art institute and the incredible warmth and camaraderie of this objects lab. I have long wanted to work at this institution, and my summer did not disappoint. I was sad to leave this lab and project behind, but little did I know my main summer treatment would be. Just a taste of what my third year had in store. So after wrapping up in Chicago, I headed to Baltimore to begin my third year at the Walters. The Walters Art Museum is located in the Mount Vernon neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland, and was established as a museum for the benefit of the public in 1934. Though originally called the Walters Art Gallery, the museum was established by Henry Walters when he turned his father, William T. Walters, extensive art collection, as well as two buildings and an endowment over to the City of Baltimore. When the museum was founded, the collection consisted of 22,000 objects amassed by William and Henry. However, the physical footprint, as well as the collection have grown to a campus of five buildings and a collection of 36,000 artworks. With the third oldest conservation lab in the country. The Walters has a reputation for strong scholarship and mentorship, particularly in the field of conservation. The conservation and technical research department is headed by Julie Laufen Burger and includes objects, book and paper and paintings. Conservation labs, as well as the scientific research and analysis lab. Members of the department take turns staffing the conservation window seen at the upper right, which allows visitors to interact with conservators and observe techniques used to examine and treat works of art from the collection. I spent my third year in the Objects Lab with supervisors Angie Elliott and Greg Bailey. When selecting an internship site, the reputation of mentorship at the Walters immediately stood out to me. It was so clear from my interview just how generous Angie and Greg would be with their time and expertise. And I knew a year at the Walters would be a wonderful experience full of learning and growth. Today, I will share two treatments with you. One of an organic object and unlike any project I've ever worked on before, and one more in line with my passion for ceramics, yet another porcelain piece. So the first treatment I'll be discussing is of this Tama, or pulpit, made in Thailand in the 19th century. The Tama is roughly 14 ft tall, when fully assembled and made up of 108 pieces. The Tama was donated to the Walters as part of a major gift of artworks from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, and was displayed at Duke Farms in New Jersey until being acquired by the Walters in 2002. In 2013, a condition survey of all of the objects from this Duke donation was undertaken and provided useful information about the Tamas potential treatment needs in 2021. The impending reinstallation of part of the Walters, Asian and Islamic collections raised the question of whether the Tama could be exhibitable. Documentation from prior examinations indicated that the Tama would require significant structural work, as well as cleaning and stabilization of the decorative surfaces in order to be exhibitable. But it would be possible. Work began in earnest in July of 2021 when the Tama parts arrived at the museum from off site storage and were unpacked for a thorough examination, condition assessment, and photography, which is seen at the right. When I joined the project, there was still some surface cleaning and stabilization of the glass pieces that needed to be completed. I jumped right into that, which gave me time to familiarize myself with the context, materials, and general scope of the project. All surfaces of the Tama were cleaned with cosmetic sponges and soft bristle brushes and then vacuum as needed. Glass pieces were further cleaned by swapping with a citrate solution before and after. Images on the right show just how dazzling that glass can be. Once cleaned, loose or detached glass pieces were then stabilized with paraloidB 72 retouching gels tinted with lamp black pigment for better aesthetic integration. The retouching gel was applied with a spatula and a flat edged wood tool to the spaces between the glass. The gels were perfect for this as they could adhere to the fragments onto the Tama and we could apply them along the edges, almost like a grout. Knowing that we were getting good adhesion with this surface work complete, we turn to more structural work and the logistics of how we would actually assemble this small building within our gallery space. We're starting at the beginning and we've got the base, the foundation for the entire structure. The Tama then has six columns, which would have originally extended from the base up through the ceiling frame upon which the roof rests. However, the columns were cut where they meet the flat top surface of the base and now exist independently of that structure. In order to assemble the Tama, it was necessary to mount the columns to the base. Two aluminum mounts were created. Each mount is L shaped and sits along the interior perimeter of the top surface of the base. At three points on the mount is a square section into which the bottom of each column fits. Then the underside of the mount in these locations registers with holes in the base. The columns are then supported at the back and sides with vertical aluminum bars that slot into the lower mount. Getting this mount just right so that everything felt secure, but also left us a bit of wiggle room. Took a lot of time and many adjustments. But we were very happy with how it turned out. With the mount in place, we were able to fully place all of the columns atop the base and add in the decorative apron panels between the columns. This step was critical, as the columns provide the support for the We needed to be confident in their integrity in order to move forward with their assembly. When the object was assembled at Duke Farms before coming to the waters, many pieces were cut in half, joining elements removed or damaged. And nails used to tack pieces together in lieu of mechanical joinery. As nails would not have been used in the original construction, we wanted to remove them and return to relying on mounts and mechanical joins. I tested several different epoxies to be used for gap filling and recreating missing, removed, or insufficient joinery elements like dovetails and tenons. At the left, you can see four of the different epoxies I tried. And at the right, you can see an example of building out a tenon and gap filling. The next phase of our work was focused on assembling the roof. We spent a lot of time test fitting, making sure that the mechanical joins functioned as intended and that everything could come together safely and securely. Now, it's really hard to distill three months of work into just a couple of minutes, but I'm going to try and explain the few steps that we took. At the upper left, you can see the first step of our assembly. The ceiling frame at the bottom, which rests atop the columns, serves as the foundation for the roof. On top of the frame, we placed three triangular gables, which were locked in place by a ridge pole across the top. Next, we added the decorative pediments to each end of the roof. Then we slotted the two large roof panels in place on the roof frame and began adding all of the bits of decorative trim. Then came time to attach the barge boards and Naga boards. These are the serpent shaped panels decorated with green and yellow glass. While these fit in their correct place is just fine. There was a good amount of room for movement in the structure and we worried that the added weight of these boards could easily cause pieces to shift around. If there was room for that, it became clear that while we had hoped to only use existing joinery to bring all of these pieces together, this would clearly not be sufficient and we would need to use additional methods to secure the pieces in place. This included the use of wood, shims and dowels, mending plates, picture hanging wire, and monofilament. Any of these added elements were later in painted with acrylics to be less visible to viewers. After a lot of hard work and planning, installation day finally arrived. The installation took a day and a half with a team of six art handlers on the first day and four on the second, as well as myself, Angie, and Greg. Each day On day one, the art handlers built the scaffolding around the installed Tama base with its columns. And then we assembled the roof frame and panels. This was the part that we were most nervous about as we had never been able to test fit that ceiling frame onto the columns. And we knew that this could be a serious obstacle. Fortunately, this all went well, and we all breathed a sigh of relief as we could move forward. On day two, we added the major decorative elements to the roof and the cornices, all of the glittering panels with colorful glass, and then took the scaffolding down. With the scaffolding gone, we were able to attach the final decorative brackets to the columns and then complete a final round of dusting and vacuuming. And with that, the installation was complete. We spent the ensuing few days finalizing all of our documentation and creating a step by step instruction guide for assembly. We hope that all this information can serve as a comprehensive guide for the next group responsible for disassembly of the Tama. Though we certainly hope they won't be doing that anytime soon. This was such a great project to kick off my third year. I'd never worked on something of quite this scale and was really enjoying the coordination and teamwork and the challenge this presented, saving the best for last. The final treatment I'll be sharing today is of this garnure of ev porcelain vases with Orm mounts. This garniture was originally purchased during the annual Sev Manufactory exhibition in 17 82 by King Louis the 16th for his apartments at Versailles. And then many years later was purchased by the Walters for their collection. The vases are unique with a brick red ground that is quite rare, and only found on one other set of objects created by Sev. The larger central vase is currently on view in the Walters Galleries. However, the remaining two flanking vases were in such poor condition that they had never been displayed. My task was to improve the condition and appearance of the two side vases in order to reunite them on display with the other member of the garniture. While I treated both of the vases, face 756 highlighted here was in significantly worse condition, requiring the most attention. So I'll be discussing its treatment in depth. My first step was completing photo documentation in the two central images captured using long and short wave ultra violet light. You can see the vase was covered with a significant amount of non original material such as tape and adhesive residue, as well as over paint and plaster. I also took some x rays, one of which is seen at the far right, to gain a better understanding of how the mounts were attached to the porcelain. The radiographs revealed that the mounts are attached at the neck of the vase with threaded rods and nuts, and at the shoulder, simply through a notch in the porcelain. The entire vase is then connected to its base with a threaded rod that connects halfway up the vase to an melo sleeve inside of the neck. The radiograph also revealed the presence of many staples on the interior of the vessel, which was an unexpected but exciting find. Staples were commonly used to repair broken ceramics in the 19th century. Instead of gluing together broken fragments within adhesive, small holes would have been drilled into fragments on either side of a break and a staple inserted to hold the pieces together using tension, it was great to capture this aspect of the objects treatment history through radiography. Then using the radiograph as a guide, I disassembled each base into its constituent parts and moved on to cleaning the porcelain and ormlumunts. I began by removing loose dust with a soft bristle brush, then tape residues and accretions by swabbing with acetone. I then carried out an array of cleaning tests to determine how best to reduce the many years of grime from the porcelain and the mounts. I ended up using H adjusted EDTA to clean the porcelain, and ethanol, followed by a gelled and ph adjusted EDTA and surfactant solution to clean the ormelu. The gel was applied with a brush and allowed to briefly dwell on the surface before being agitated and removed with a cotton swab. It took a lot of time to develop this tailored cleaning solution, but it was well worth it to get the ormelur sparkling again. Next, I turned to the various prior Ted, prior restorations that needed to be removed. The old film material was removed by using water left to dwell and soften the material, followed by mechanical action with a scalpel. As the fill material was removed, three porcelain fragments that had been held in place with this material were removed from the object and then later adhered back in place with paraloid B 72. With the restoration material fully excavated, I was able to see the interior of the vase and got a great glimpse of the staples I mentioned previously. As you can see, many staples were used to reassemble this vase. While we no longer use staples for reassembly, they are risky to remove, so I left them in place and continued on with my treatment. With all of the restoration material removed and the small fragments back in place. There was still a very large loss to the floral band. I compensated the losses to this area and those on the rest of the vase with bulked epoxy and shaped the fills using glass papers. At the left, you can see the vase with the restorations removed, and on the right, you can see the new epoxy fills. With the fills complete, I began to tackle in painting and gilding using tracing paper. I traced the gilded garland design from intact areas and then transferred the design to the fill with a pencil. I then gilded the garland design with 22 at gold leaf applied over an oil size. With the gilding complete, I turned to painting and started with the areas of red ground, which I knew would be the trickiest for this project. I wanted to try underfilling losses with epoxy and then building up the surface with primal WS 24 as a gloss layer. Angie and Greg swear by this for mimicking glazes. So it seemed like the perfect opportunity to try something new. I created mock ups for testing by applying a thin layer of bulk epoxy onto a sheet of coral plast. And then applied primal in, in various combinations. After a lot of experimentation, I did finally get the hang of using primal and successfully matched the red ground of the vase. Now it was time to tackle the flowers. Unlike on my treatment from the Art Institute, where the floral design was still largely intact with this vase, I was going to have to paint numerous flowers with no extant design present. For guidance, I discussed the approach to in painting with our curator, Earl Martin, and we decided that since each floral arrangement is unique and not a single design repeated, I would create my own arrangements by picking and choosing flowers found in other locations on the vase. Given the level of detail and the small scale of these flowers, I ended up completing all of this work under magnification with a triple zero brush with just a few hairs left in it. Well, I thought that this part of the treatment could take me weeks. It actually ended up taking just one day, a focus time, which was really quite enjoyable though. I would never consider myself an artist. I think that these flowers turned out pretty well. Here you can see the front and back of vase 756 before treatment, during with the restorations removed, during with the new fills and after. While you might think that the treatment ends here, we can't forget about those melo mounts. As you can see, the garland mounts were not in great condition when the vase was broken and repaired, before it arrived at the waters. Each mount sustained damages including deformations in the metal breaks and losses in the mount on the right. See an entire area is missing. While we had the fragment of this, we did not have the entire missing section in order to make these mounts whole. Again, missing elements were reconstructed using molds taken from extant elements, like the section indicated here. For the missing elements, two part molds were constructed of silicone using dams made from plasticine clay. The replacement pieces were cast out of epoxy and shaped using a heated scalpel, abrasive papers and rasps. The casts and the fragment of original garland were adhered to the mounts with epoxy. Then the casts were given a base coat of red oxide acrylic paint gilded with gold leaf and then tone with acrylics for further integration. With the garland mounts completed, all that was left to do was attach them, which was a little bit easier said than done when I disassembled the mounts. At the beginning of my treatment, I found that the hardware being used was not original, mismatched, and not particularly functional. I created new hardware that is more sympathetic to the aesthetics of the object. New brass screws and cap nuts seen in the image at the lower left were used to secure and attach the garland mounts to the vase. With that, I was able to reassemble the remaining elements of the vases and my treatment was complete. Here you can see the two flanking vases in their full glory. Before and after treatment, a market improvement, and now ready to be reunited and displayed as they were intended to be seen. And with that, my third year at the Walters came to a quick close. Overall, this was a truly wonderful year. I'm proud of everything I have accomplished and I'm excited to carry everything I've learned with me as I embark on the next phase of my career. This year has truly flown by. It feels like just yesterday I was packing up my apartment in Wilmington. Sad to leave behind the comfort and familiarity of winter. But excited by the prospect of all the adventures and new experiences third year would bring. While this year is clearly a time for learning and growth, we all know that there is so much more to it than the treatments and work completed in our labs. It's about making new friends and connections. Putting yourself out there and being open to what you get back. This year, I made new friends, reconnected with old, shared my work at conferences, gained new skills at workshops, explored my new cities, and simply said yes to every opportunity that came my way. Well, this year taught me a lot about who I am as a conservator. I learned a lot more about myself and who I am as a colleague and a friend. But before I conclude and we all go off to celebrate this accomplishment, I know we've been waiting for so long. I want to thank everyone that has helped me get this far. To my preprogram mentors at the PMA and the Barnes Foundation. Thank you for your incredible mentorship, for fostering my desire to question and problem solve. When I decided to pursue conservation, I never thought that I could be a student at winter. But your guidance and confidence made me realize that of course, I could be a student here and a successful one at that to my wood pack faculty. Thank you for taking me in, for nurturing me and helping me grow under your love and thoughtful guidance, your passion for your work and your ability to share it with us students is truly amazing to my classmates from our first meeting on Zoom to our trip to Hobe our in person second year to now, just a few days from finishing this chapter. It has been a joy and an honor getting to share this journey with you. And lastly, to my two greatest advocates and most ardent supporters, my mom and dad. While I never imagined my dad wouldn't be here to celebrate, I am so grateful that my mom is, she is my guide post, the one from whom I gained the strength and the poise that make me uniquely me. Without your unconditional love and unwavering support, I certainly wouldn't be standing here today. So thank you and thank you all. And if there are any questions Yes. Back there, I want to go the brass hardware. Sure. Danielle wants to know where I got the replacement brass hardware. So some of that was actually a fun trip to the hardware store. It was looking through a lot of the stuff that we had on hand at the museum, but ultimately, we didn't have exactly what I needed. Taking some sample pieces and some specs. I went to the hardware store and just tested a bunch of different screws and caput and then brought that back to the museum to see what would fit and what I could kind of adjust to make work. And in the end, really came up with a great solution, especially with the help of our mount maker. So I was able to kind of fudge some things and really alter the pieces that I purchased from the hardware store in order to make things fit perfectly. And I think in the end, it was a really great solution. All right, if that's it, I think we're all ready to be done and celebrate, so I will yield the floor.
Katharine Shulman
From Robert Diiorio August 22, 2023
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