Category Archives: Uncategorized

Marianne Comment’s These last two weeks have gone by in the blink of an eye. Jonas’s has been able to produce an incredible 17 different sample boards. I think it must be a record if anyone is measuring such things. … Continue reading →

Marianne Comment’s Acrid smells and the hint of something burning instantly sent conservators into alarm mode. It did not take them long to track me down with my chemical oven full of copal varnish. This was the scene some 15 … Continue reading →

Marianne’s comments As you can see from the photograph above, the boards are really looking spectacular. Today I will catch up on one of the comments I have received. Miho Kitagawa writes that she feels the addition of Venetian turpentine … Continue reading →

Marianne’s comments One beautiful thing about the Internet is that many rare books can now be easily accessed on-line or downloaded. Although I miss the fun of climbing stacks of the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, passing rows of beautifully … Continue reading →

Marianne’s Comments: When I am at a party and people ask me what work I do, I usually start with; I am a conservator who restores objects. This is invariably followed by a question on exactly what objects I restore. … Continue reading →

Marianne’s Comments. Yesterday Jonas added dragon’s blood to two of the varnishes we are preparing. Dragon’s blood conjures up images of alchemists in medieval castles preparing various magical potions. In fact, the name in one form or another has been … Continue reading →

Marianne’s comments Not too much to post today as we were pretty busy making varnishes. I received a note about my way of putting horsetail in a bundle to use it like a glass bristle brush. It was felt that … Continue reading →

Marianne’s Comments: Today we started preparing horsetail so it can be used for sanding the panels, as they are prepared. On the Sunshine Coast in British Columbia where I live gardeners despise it. It is an ancient plant that spreads … Continue reading →

Marianne’s Comments: In response to yesterday’s blog Miho Kitagawa says that the Manila Copal we used in the S&P Best White varnish was not available in Europe at the time S&P were writing. She felt that Zanzibar copal, which is … Continue reading →

Marianne Webb – Introduction For the next two weeks my website will feature a blog on recreating western lacquer surfaces using historic recipes. This project came about because Jonas Veenhoven is doing an internship with me to study western lacquer. … Continue reading →