News from the International Course on Stone Conservation (SC11)
Update from a participant

30 May. We are just about to complete the 7th week of the Stone Course and time seems to be moving very fast. Having looked at theories and issues in the first few weeks, we're now onto treatments and solutions, which is drawing everything we've learned together.

The course has provided a great mix of lectures, lab and practical sessions and site visits from Day One. The lab and practical sessions have allowed us to take a hands-on approach to the observations and analysis of the materials that we've been discussing which so far includes stone, lime-based mortars and salts analysis.

On 26 May, we were very privileged to go behind the scenes in the Vatican to visit the stone restoration workshop, unopened parts of the museum and to go on site at the Colonnade surrounding Piazza San Pietro to observe the conservation work currently being undertaken. We have also been assigned worksites within the non-Catholic Cemetery in Rome, which we have been visiting throughout the course to diagnose the deterioration and conservation issues. In the eleventh week of the course we will be spending a full week on this project to implement our solutions. We will also be integrating our laboratory analyses of some of the stonework and the biological growth on our structures where possible.

On Sunday we began our study tour of Northern Italy and I look forward to seeing many of the things we've discussed in the classroom in action. This course has really reinforced my understanding of the need for us to work in interdisciplinary teams when dealing with stone conservation. In addition, the international perspectives that we've been able to share among the participants and lecturers has shown us that we all have much to learn from each other on many common issues.

Alice Custance-Baker
United Kingdom

Alice is a Building Materials Analyst for the Scottish Lime Centre Trust. While at ICCROM, she is keeping a blog on her experiences as a participant on the Stone Course.

updated on: 30 May, 2011