A mix of art and education made conserving the 'Nicotania' plant model an interesting project. Research into the object's past revealed that it was meant as an educational tool, shown by the fact that it can be taken apart in pieces to display its anatomy.
It was the sheer amount of parts, and their three dimensional nature, that made the object's documentation especially tricky. Using my design skills, I created the image on the left, explaining how each piece fits together, creating a better and clearer solution than simply verbally describing the connections.
The treatment itself involved a variety of methods, such as dry and wet cleaning, infilling, in-painting and adhesion. This was all done with the same rigorous standards expected of conservators, with the each step allowing for reversibility and properly documented. The object's scientific purpose had to also be conisdered, and so each treatment was done to preserve its technical - rather than its artistic - nature.
The treatment report can be found here.
