Day #3 of Parchment Conservation - Part 2 - Surface Treatment In the second half of today's workshop, we experimented with different surface treatments for parchment. These would have been applied to finish the surface for writing. Different techniques create different finishes that are hard, soft, shiny, or matte, depending on the desired use and look of the finished product. For a soft finish, try bread baked with ground glass (or sandpaper, if you don't have the former lying around). For a hard surface, try egg white, dried in the sun and polished to an even sheen.

This week I am at the Campbell Center for Historic Preservation Studies to attend a class on parchment conservators with Sheila Siegler. Today we learned about how parchment is made, and then we practiced a variety of physical examination techniques. We took samples of our parchment and made slides to view under the microscope, examined our parchment with raking and UV light, and saw how samples of parchment respond to heat. Spoiler alert - when burned, it smells like burning hair. I learned so much today - I am really looking forward to what the rest of the week has to offer!