Artemi Chaviara

Research Project: Blued Steel. Which Blue? A Method of Documenting the Colour of Blued Steel Objects

The conservation of works of art is a profession that I was always interested in and studied for nine years. I have gained a diploma in antiquities conservation, a bachelor degree in archaeological and antiquities conservation and a Masters degree in Preventive Conservation through my academic education.

A personal belief is that knowledge is better and more deeply claimed when the theory is followed by practice. Therefore, I have been working, throughout my education, on the conservation of archaeological and antiquities; and on preventive conservation, with a focus on storage, integrated pest management for museums, and museum staff training. Owing to my practical way of thinking I am ‘inventive’ in my work, using my high level of manual dexterity to develop quality. This can be seen in my MA research, where I have developed a documentation method for the colour of blued steel objects, using colour-matching and colorimetry. Another example is the project ‘Mind the gap! The trial use of a commercial material for sealing the floor-gaps in a display case’. Presented in our Student Symposium (2009), where I am using a gap-filling material, new in the conservation field, for preventive conservation purposes.

More of my work on the preventive conservation field is published in the preprints of ‘Pest Management in Practice – ICON’ (UK, 2008), and the research “Non-destructive techniques and mineral pigments: Exploration of the validity and limitations in their identification” is published in the preprint of the “4th Symposium of Archaeometry” (Greece, 2003).