Treatment is what conservators and restorers are best known for. Interventions include stabilization, repair, reconstruction, cleaning, and visual reintegration.
Our primary goal at Art Solutions Lab is to ensure the outcome of our work is consistent with your expectation. We will discuss the process and options with you to ensure we have a shared goal. Information discovered during work that may impact expectations of the final stability, visual appearance, or timeframe for completion will be communicated timely.
Conservation Treatment Approach and Ethics
One of the most important features of conservation treatment is documentation, both written and photographic. This serves to outline the proposed actions, the steps actually carried out, and the materials used. Images of the object before, during, and after work will also be taken as visual documentation of where repairs were carried out or how the object changed. Further, we work within the AIC Code of Ethics by striving to select methods and materials that, to the best of our current knowledge, do not adversely affect the cultural artifact or its future examination, scientific investigation, treatment, or function. We carry out remedial and restoration treatments. We also offer preventive services and products.
Remedial Conservation
Remedial conservation includes actions used to stop damaging processes or reinforce the structure of an object. These actions, sometimes considered triage, are carried out when objects are in such fragile condition, that they could be lost in a relatively short time. These actions sometimes modify the appearance of the items. Examples of remedial conservation are the disinfestation of textiles, desalination of ceramics, stabilization of corroded metals, and consolidation of friable paint.
Restoration
Restoration describes actions applied to a stable item and aimed at facilitating the item’s appreciation, understanding, and use. Restoration actions are carried out when an item has lost part of its significance or function through past alteration or deterioration. They are determined based on respect for the original material. Most often such actions modify the appearance or form of the item. Examples of restoration are retouching a painting, reassembling a broken sculpture, reshaping a basket, filling losses on a glass vessel.
When clients come to us, it is often because some type of restoration is desired for their object.
Treatment Examples
Please review an image gallery of representative treatments that have been carried out at Art Solutions Lab.
A more complete portfolio of our work is available upon request, including report samples. You may also request a password to access work samples of outdoor sculpture and public art.