Archaeologists!

A few weeks ago, before my classmate Cindy and her boyfriend arrived to spend a Philly Weekend, those at Chez Headley decided that we just couldn't stand the huge, white, nasty wainscoting in the dining room a moment longer! So we tore it off! (photos by Emily)

I display the prize we found trapped between the maybe 1940's faux green tile linoleum and the wainscoting: one Uno card. Sweet.

Then Bret tore some of the wall down, while I tore the rest of the wainscoting off. So now the dining room is larger, but uglier.

Larger, because the people who lived in Chez Headley prior to us were crazy. The wainscoting was normal wainscoting attached to two-by-fours that had been nailed into the wall. The gaps between the boards, behind the wainscoting, were filled with large chunks of foam. Like foam that electronics would be packaged with. So removing it actually made the room much more spacious.

UD Homecoming

Saturday was not only Halloween, it was the University of Delaware 2009 Homecoming. This was the first time I have returned for the celebrations, which is kind of highly appropriate now that I've graduated from UD yet again.

In all actuality, the real reason I returned for homecoming this year was to meet up with my old friends from the UDMB colorguard to laugh and have a good time and to spin with the alumni band. Lots of UDCG alumni came to spin, as we all, in a way, came for Donnie. Pictured below is actually the current band.














As in everything related to the UDMB, it started ridiculously early with rehersal in Delaware at 8:30. Afterwards we were free to frolick in the rain and tailgate with all the normal people. Alissa mixed a special cocktail in celebration of everyone coming: the Malibu Barbie. Yes, that Malibu Barbie.














It was like reliving things. We did the exact same things the band always does, but you could wear blue jeans instead of a crazy unitard and a fake ponytail, or whatever else Donnie would have dreamed up.




























We even had to do that thing where we play the fight song and march beneath the stands. The whole time I kept asking everyone, "Seriously? Are we seriously going to do this? Just like we used to? Seriously?"


















We had excellent seats. For band-watching, that is.














I take my camera on the field! The alumni bands performs two songs at stand-still during half-time. Remarkably, lots of people stayed for this performance.














Typically this sort of thing is a train-wreck, as you learn the work only a few hours before you have to perform it. But, surprisingly, we were pretty good (better than the actual guard, but give me a call if you want to hear about that). I stole this picture from somebody else: our flags are all crazy-patterns, but they're all together.












Some things never change. Sarver, the band director, came up to us afterwards for a good-job (you did better than the current actual guard did today), UDMB is family, Donnie would be so proud talk.














Everyone on the field after the game, those who didn't spin as well, singing 'In My Life'. The band always sings this at the end of each home football game.












We all have soggy shoes. Should have brought the wellies.














The whole alumni guard, post-performance.

Back to the Wilds of Pennsylvania

I made a long trip back to Brockway this weekend, where I consumed too much sugar and ended up spending a big portion of my time napping my way out of hyperglycemia.

It was also small-game hunting season.

The Beans (picture shamelessly stolen stole from Michael). Don't judge Bitty Bean harshly because she is rocking a little mullet: we all had those hair moments ourselves too.

Marc Chagall

To continue with my name-dropping streak, I'll share that the same person who brought in the Renoir lithograph also brought in a large color lithograph by Marc Chagall (1887-1985).

Once again, no pictures of the particular object, but several in the same spirit.

People drop by other's benches on a pretty frequent basis. There was a visitor (ie another conservator or a technician) at my bench during the examination of the lithograph. She was trying to make some sense of the imagery, then shrugged and said, "Whatever. It's Chagall. That's how he is."

Pierre-Auguste Renoir

A recent object that passed through the lab was a black-and-white lithograph by the French Impressionist artists Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919).

He's really famous for painting nudes.

The Large Bathers, 1887, Philadelphia Museum of Art

Other works you may recognize include:

Girls at the Piano, 1892, Musee d'Orsay

Luncheon of the Boating Party, 1880-1881, The Phillips Collection

I can't post any pictures of the lithograph I examined, but it is similar in style to these two (also, subject = mother and children).

Saint-Memin

I was recently assigned, and subsequently treated, a pastel portrait by the artist Saint-Memin. Charles Balthazar Julien Fevret de Saint-Memin (lived 1770-1852, worked 1796-1810) was born in France and came to North America as an exile (French Revolution business). In America Saint-Memin took up engraving and eventually ended up running a highly successful portraitist. At first he was partners with Thomas Bluget de Valdenuit, but in 1797 when Valdenuit returned to France Saint-Memin carried on with the business alone.

Saint-Memin traveled up and down the Atlantic coast, working along the way and taking the likenesses of ordinary people as well as the important characters of the day. The pink background is nearly ubiquitous in his drawings: it was a ground layer, like gouache, that he applied to the paper initially. He returned to France in 1817 when his family regain their properties and ended his career as an artist, though he was a strong supporter of the arts for the rest of his life.

Alexander Hanson, 1803-1806

Paul Revere, 1800

Thomas Jefferson (TJ), 1804

Turkish Marbling

On Sunday I joined a herd of other paper/book conservation people from the Conservation Centre (my new place of employment) at a Turkish Marbling Workshop at Historic RittenhouseTown in Philadelphia. The site of the first papermill in what was British North America, RittenhouseTown is an interpretive historic landmark as well as a center for paper arts, hosting several workshops relating to book/paper arts. Artists are invited in to give these workshops, which are held in a converted barn/studio.

We all had a really fantastic time: this marbling technique is actually very easy. We used up all of the paper stock and all of the silk scarves.

One of the participants is finished floating the paint on the surface of the liquid. There were multiple stations, but nobody minded waiting, as it was so much fun to see what everyone else was working on.

Betty, one of my old paper conservation professors, works at the long scarf-marbling tank.

The weather was perfect for paper drying.

Outside the studio barn, the scarves flutter in the breeze.

My workshop silk scarves.

My papers. Not pictured are all the little marbles scraps I have (bookmarks for everyone!)