A3 Collection Services

31/05/2024

IT'S ON AGAIN! Come and stare at old photos for 2 days with me and Special Guest, Prue McKay. Prue has loads of training in Photo Cons, having attended different courses to me, so we will have ALL the opinions covered. It will be fun and a bit educational.

https://www.canberra.edu.au/discover-fad/preserving-photographic-materials

27/04/2024

When you don't have a cabinet for your cabinet cards

15/11/2023

Had the absolute honor of receiving the Australian Institute for the Conservation of Cultural Materials 2023 Medal last night. Heartfelt thanks to my friends and colleagues who nominated me. Makes being old feel pretty good.

23/05/2023

TRAINING! Come and spend three days with me and a bunch of photos

Please share:
https://www.canberra.edu.au/discover-fad/introduction-to-photographic-conservation

30/12/2022

New personal Gram account created . No posts yet - how exciting.

01/06/2022

Places available! Three days of getting up close and personal with photographic processes. Black and white, colour and digital. With ME!
https://www.canberra.edu.au/ucpro/courses/introduction-to-photographic-conservation

01/06/2022

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=689607015420322&id=100031130890815

Don't forget to register for three days of brain busting fun! Still places available.

14/05/2022

We are trying AGAIN! June 8TH, 9TH and 10TH. Uni of Canberra Heritage Conservation Lab. If you've already paid, get in touch with the Uni again and confirm you place. I HOPE to see you there

https://www.canberra.edu.au/ucpro/courses/introduction-to-photographic-conservation

08/03/2022

Stacks of flood affected photographs can be frozen now to be treated later OR peeled apart while wet. Each photo can be pegged on a clothesline or clothes airer by the corner and left to dry.

If you have the time, space and resources, they can be rinsed in clean water then hung up to dry.

Don't throw precious things away thinking they are ruined. Lots of things can be salvaged.

06/03/2022

Solid items like metals and ceramics can be allowed to air dry and be cleaned up at a later date. Fresh water and a paint brush will do the job.

06/03/2022

Irreplaceable textile items, like baby clothes or heirloom quilts can be frozen too. This will stop mould forming and allow you to deal with cleaning them up later.

06/03/2022

Good advice

We have just published two new resources in response to the current crisis.

On our website you can download: 'Preparing for imminent disaster' and 'What to do if flood water is in your building'.

This short documents give practical advice and information on preparing for flooding and storms with limited time, and then assessing and accessing flooded premises.

As always, the safety of people is the most important thing! Do not underestimate the danger of flood waters, even if they appear still and/or shallow.

Find these new publications on our Flood page here: https://aiccm.org.au/disaster/flood/

06/03/2022

Flood damaged books, documents and photographs can be frozen to stabilise them in the short term. If you have access to electricity, you can wrap paper-based items in baking paper and freeze them. Then, when things settle down, you can defrost them and dry them out.

Do this for irreplaceable items. If something is easy to replace, throw it away.

16/11/2021

Slowly, slowly. Gently, gently. Pure alcohol for these photographs. They have experienced enough water in their past.

06/11/2021

First, photograph everything. Second, vacuum remove the mould using a fine nozzle with controlled suction on a HEPA vacuum cleaner.

06/11/2021

A project for a friend. Let the games begin!

25/09/2021

With hand sanitiser having become part of our new norm, it is timely to remind people that while sanitiser does indeed kill germs and other micro-organisms it doesnt remove dirt. Here I've put face paint on my hands (hand paint?), then sanitised them to show that layers of dirt on your hands just get spread around with hand sanitiser. Good old soap and water is what gets rid of the dirt. Remember that next time you have morning tea and go straight back to handling cultural materials.

29/08/2021

Surface cleaning a silver gelatine print, front and back.

29/08/2021

Retouching an extremely light damaged image can only be carried out after hours of consolidation.

29/08/2021

Lovely boys before and after.

21/08/2021

One of the essentials

A useful resource for the photographic conservator, conservation scientist, curator, as well as professional collector.

13/07/2021

Sorry everyone, but due to the shifting sands of the global pandemic, we have decided to postpone the UCPro short courses until November. If you have paid already, the UC will contact you. See you in November (hopefully).

28/06/2021

Just a reminder that these UC Short Courses are coming up in July. My course is filling up, so if you want a spot, get on it.
https://www.canberra.edu.au/ucpro/courses/introduction-to-photographic-conservation

The University of Canberra is proudly the university of Australia's capital. UC is one of Australia's top universities for getting a job. We specialise in professional education and applied research, and offer degrees that focus on skills for the real world.

04/06/2021

The University of Canberra is offering a series of Short courses in July, including one by me!

https://www.canberra.edu.au/ucpro/courses/introduction-to-photographic-conservation

https://www.canberra.edu.au/ucpro/courses/preserving-paper-collections-part-1

https://www.canberra.edu.au/ucpro/courses/preserving-paper-collections-part-2

https://www.canberra.edu.au/ucpro/courses/insect-identification-for-museum-collections
https://www.canberra.edu.au/ucpro/courses/introduction-to-heritage-engineering

The University of Canberra is proudly the university of Australia's capital. UC is one of Australia's top universities for getting a job. We specialise in professional education and applied research, and offer degrees that focus on skills for the real world.

12/02/2021

Doing a science