|
One of the many passions of my late mentor Bruno Pouliot was expanding on the knowledge and practice of the stain reduction of ceramics. Working with scientists at Winterthur and WUDPAC, he (and then we) contributed practical research backed by chemical cleaning theory and years of putting research into practice to develop sound protocols for ceramic stain reduction treatments.
Bruno had developed a well-rounded practical seminar on this topic for second-year objects majors, a platform that perfectly enabled experimentation and technique advancement. Soon, colleagues in other institutions began requesting that we hold this seminar for their labs, and so we "took it on the road," so to speak. |
Lead-glazed earthenware (pearlware) sugar bowl with blue underglaze decoration, and staining caused by the breakdown of sugars having entered the body through the crazed lead glaze. WUDPAC study collection
|
To date, we have now given this seminar in various iterations to conservators at the following places:
To date, we have now given this seminar in various iterations to conservators at the following places:
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City: hands on workshop and lectures (2012)
- Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, Maryland: hands on workshop and lectures (2013)
- Smithsonian American Art Museum and Lunder Conservation Center, Washington, DC: hands on workshop and lectures (2014)
- Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts: hands on workshop and lectures (2015)
- Straus Conservation Center at Harvard University Art Museums, Boston, Massachusetts: hands on workshop and lectures (2016)
- Institute for Conservation (Icon) professional programming, virtual: online lecture (2021)
- Icon professional programming, University College London, UK: hands on workshop and lectures (2022)
- West Dean College, West Sussex, UK: hands on workshop and lectures (2023)
- Institut Royal du Patrimoine Artistique (KIK-IRPA) and La Cambre University, Brussels, Belgium: hands on workshop and lectures (2024)
From left: Meg Craft, Terry Drayman-Weisser, and Bruno Pouliot, at the 2013 seminar, Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, MD
|
Lauren lecturing during the 2014 seminar, Lunder Conservation Center, Washington, DC
|
Images from 2022 Icon Ceramics and Glass Group stain reduction workshop at UCL, London
Images from 2024 stain reduction workshop hosted by La Cambre University and KIK-IRPA, Brussels, Belgium
talks and publications
Fair, Lauren. 2021. "Stain Reduction of Ceramics." Virtual lecture, Icon Ceramics and Glass Group, November 22, 2021.
Pouliot, Bruno, Lauren Fair, and Richard Wolbers. 2013. "Re-thinking the Approach: Techniques explored at Winterthur for the stain reduction of ceramics." In Recent Advances in Glass, Stained-Glass, and Ceramics Conservation 2013. Preprints of the ICOM-CC Glass and Ceramics Working Group Interim Meeting and the Forum of the International Scientific Committee for the Conservation of Stained Glass, Amsterdam, NL, 7–10 October 2013, edited by Hannelore Roemich and Kate van Lookeren Campagne, 211-223. ICOM Committee for Conservation.
Pouliot, Bruno, Lauren Fair, and Richard Wolbers. 2013. "Re-thinking the Approach: Techniques explored at Winterthur for the stain reduction of ceramics." In Recent Advances in Glass, Stained-Glass, and Ceramics Conservation 2013. Preprints of the ICOM-CC Glass and Ceramics Working Group Interim Meeting and the Forum of the International Scientific Committee for the Conservation of Stained Glass, Amsterdam, NL, 7–10 October 2013, edited by Hannelore Roemich and Kate van Lookeren Campagne, 211-223. ICOM Committee for Conservation.