Workshop following the British Museum's 'Symposium on the care and conservation of human remains with a focus on natural mummies'

The British Museum's 'Symposium on the care and conservation of human remains with a focus on natural mummies' (organized by Barbara Wills and Daniel Antoine) took place on 20 April.

It was excellent to discuss the subject from such diverse angles. And it was wonderful to have a second day totally dedicated to exploring the techniques Barbara and her colleagues developed during her two-year Clothworkers Conservation Fellowship. It was a privilege to be there and learn from her experience.

Here you can see  pics of some of the activities carried out during the workshop - and learn some of the very simple and extremely effective techniques.

Please note that the 'human bones' depicted here are made of plastic and used for training purposes. 

Our mission was to stabilize this without implementing any kind of interventive treatments. Look out for the 'tendons' and 'skin'. A work of art in itself!

Barbara Wills demonstrating how to create a pillow with polyester wadding, teflon and plastazote.

See what the pillow was for?

Wonderful things can be done with pins.

Cutting plastazote has never been so simple.

Creating the perfect support for a skull.