WASHINGTON CONSERVATION GUILD NEWSLETTER March 2004 Volume 28 No. 1 ISSN #0886-1323 Upcoming WCG Meetings 2003/2004 Monthly meetings for the 2003/2004 season began October 2003 and run through May From the Desk of the 2004. The meetings are held on the first President Thursday of each month. Most meetings begin at 5 p.m. with a reception, followed by the guest speaker’s presentation. Please Most people don’t realize that running an check individual meeting announcements for organization like WCG costs a lot of money. exact times and locations. With membership dues at a mere $25.00, we work very hard to minimize our expenditures. I have fantastic news to April 1 report on that front! April Spoof Talks and Wine Tasting. The talks will take place at the Baltimore Museum After a lot of hard work by Membership of Art, 10 Art Museum Drive, Baltimore, MD. Chair Catherine Williams, WCG has finally May 6 been approved for non-profit mailing status. ABBREVIATED BUSINESS MEETING AND This will save WCG over $1,000.00 a year in RAFFLE will be held at Hillwood Museum and mailing costs, which represents 10% of our Gardens. total yearly budget. We have also finally been approved for Washington, DC, sales tax exemption. While not as lucrative as the non-profit mailing status, it will save us at least $125.00 a year. I am hopeful that we will be able to put these savings to good Inside This Issue use, such as bringing in speakers or holding workshops. 1 From the Desk of the President 2 December Meeting Another way in which WCG can hold down 4 January Meeting its expenses would be to send meeting and 10 February Meeting other announcements by e-mail rather 12 Kendra Lovette Fund than “snail” mail. The current by-laws, 13 Nominee Bios however, require written notification. The 15 Bylaws Change board is proposing a change to the bylaws 15 Preservation Volunteer Awards (see page 16 ) to be voted on at the May 16 People meeting, which will allow us to send either e- 16 Courses mail or written announcements, or both. We will be asking each of you, at a later date, to choose how you would like to receive your WCG communications. Speaking of e-mail, you may have noticed a few months ago an e-mail from Misonix 1 with the subject line “Washington Conservation Guild.” We did not give WCG has not been successful in recruiting Misonix our e-mail list, nor did we approve of members for several open positions, a this e-mail. WCG does not sell its e-mail list situation that I would like to resolve. As an and the e-mails listed in the membership all-volunteer organization we can only be directory are intended for our members’ successful if our members step up to the personal use only. WCG uses the e-mail list plate and get involved. The most urgent for our meeting announcements and other need at present is for a Public Outreach WCG related business. We contacted Booth Coordinator. While we were able to Misonix to resolve this issue and will take set up the booth at one event this year, actions to prevent it from occurring again. ideally we would like WCG to be represented at three events throughout the WCG committee members are continuing year. This is an important part of our to dedicate themselves to working on outreach program and it has significant numerous projects. Rachel-Ray impact on the public by educating them Cleveland, Public Lecture Coordinator, about conservation and conservators. If you obtained a grant from AIC to support a are interested in this position, please let me lecture by WCG member Christine Smith to know. After all the hard work that went into the Professional Picture Framers creating the WCG booth, I would hate to see Association. Rachel-Ray will continue to it vanish into oblivion. We also need a solicit speakers and lecture sites and we will Bylaws Chair and a Refreshment continue to apply for support from AIC for Coordinator. these public lectures. Michele Pagan, Angels Project Coordinator, is hard at work Finally, our meetings continue to be very setting up an Angels day. If you have any successful, with the average attendance at suggestions please contact her. Howard each meeting over forty members (around Wellman is continuing to organize events for 80 at the 3-Ring Circus meeting). The last our interns, including an upcoming tour by three meetings included talks by a the curators of the new facility at the calligrapher, by your fellow conservators at National Air and Space Museum. Board the 3-ring circus and by conservation fellows members Linda Edquist and Beth Richwine and interns. You have answered our plea have been working for several years to for food and wine donations magnificently: obtain funding for conservators to speak on donations so far have totaled over $700.00. metals and paper conservation at a Although that seems like a lot, please keep conservation conference in South Africa. in mind that it only covers about half of the Linda & Beth are stepping up their efforts to refreshment budget. So thank you and keep find grants that will allow WCG to send it coming! several conservators to this event. Publication of the second edition of Emily Jacobson, WCG President Conservation Resources for Art and [email protected] or Antiques (CRfAA2) is on track. Dare [email protected] Hartwell has successfully solicited and received the conservator entries for the publications, and they are in the final stages of editing. Linda Edquist is actively pursuing December Meeting advertisers and has already sold a number of ads, including both inside covers. The “The Art of Islamic Calligraphy” by newly written and revised chapters have Mohamed Zakariya been edited and will be going back to the authors for final review. We will be forming Expert calligrapher Mohamed Zakariya a new fulfillment committee to expand on the described the art and history of Islamic markets we currently sell to and to come up calligraphy with a look at the techniques and with new venues for publicity. If you are materials he uses in the process of creating interested in joining this committee please works of calligraphic art. Zakariya has contact me. developed his skills as a calligrapher over 2 many years and uses a number of achievement is recognized by awarding the specialized techniques such as burnishing, student with an icazet, or permission to work lamination and marbling, and materials such alone. It often takes years for a student to as paper coatings, adhesives, inks, receive the icazet. pigments, and dyes to create highly unique and expressive examples of calligraphy. Zakariya’s techniques are quite specialized. He uses paper dyed with tea or herbs such Islamic calligraphy is the art of writing the as annatto and then coated with aged text of the Quran, the divine revelation of the starch. He varnishes it with several coats of Islamic religion, and other texts from the a liquid made from alum and egg-whites, Islamic legacy. The Quran is written in and then burnishes it using an agate Arabic and as such, calligraphy in the Arabic burnishing stone. The generic name for such script is considered a form of worship. It is paper coatings is ahar. The paper is aged difficult to date the advent of the tradition of for at least one year to allow the coating to Islamic calligraphy. The Arabic alphabet, harden so that the ink stays on the surface which is written from right to left, existed well and does not sink in. Historically, inks used before the beginning of the Islamic religion. for writing scripts were often made using Over many centuries as the Muslim faith flow agents such as vitriol, absinthe leaves, spread, the Arabic language developed from and dried pomegranate. Zakariya uses ink a simple means of writing to encompassing that he makes from soot produced by several different styles or scripts, some burning linseed oil and kerosene. The soot becoming much more formal. The simple is mixed with gum Arabic and ground with a scripts were written with a blunt pen and mortar and pestle for 30 hours, then mixed were used for everyday purposes, while the with distilled water and beaten in a blender formal scripts, recognizable for their more on and off for two weeks. The ink is stored in proportional measurement, were written with an inkwell, or hokka, in which an absorbent a chisel-cut reed pen and later came to be wad of raw silk called a lika, is suspended. embellished with illumination, border He often adorns the borders of the work paintings, and other aesthetic qualities. The using marbled paper, which he creates practice of Islamic calligraphy has seen using the Turkish style of marbling called many changes over time owing to numerous ebru. This technique is achieved by grinding prominent calligraphers, the evolution of old pigments with water and ox gall and floating scripts, and the addition of new ones. Today the pigments in a mixture of water and gum the Research Center for Islamic History, Art, tragacanth. When the paper is floated on and Culture (IRCICA) in Istanbul holds a this bath and then removed, the pigments triennial international calligraphy competition remain on the paper, creating a unique which encourages the art of calligraphy to pattern. The works are wet-laminated with continue to grow and remain an important aged starch onto four- or five-ply Strathmore aspect of Muslim tradition.