Chapter 7 - The Chapel in Istria

Chapter 7 goes live at last!

It was supposed to be longer but I realised I was trying to squeeze too much activity into too small a space, so I stopped at a natural break and the next chapter will  be a continuation of Celia's adventures in Zagreb.

The story so far for newcomers:

Dr Celia Thomas is an art restorer who works in Munich. She has been commissioned to investigate the walls of a 15th century chapel in Croatia, belonging to Ivan Kaiec, a wealthy Croatian businessman. He believes there could be paintings hidden behind plaster dating back to the 15th or 16th century. But is he right?

Chapter 7 can now be found under 'Good Stuff' on the right

Fresco research

 Chapter 7 is on the way but has necessitated a lot of research in advance. The funny thing is that most of this research will never actually appear in the final material, but I feel I need to know some of this stuff in order to make the actions of the characters believable.

So what have I been looking at and why?

Mostly I've been trying to find out more about the work of a restorer, as that is what Celia - the book's central character - will be doing in this chapter. I wanted to find out in particular about frescoes and how you would find out if underneath a layer of plaster there might be something interesting. This led me to some interesting places. First of all Famagusta in Cyprus, where the University of Nanyang in Singapore has been funding the restoration of some frescoes: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-snm3kWK4tk 

I then wanted information about the kind of equipment that might be useful for analysis purposes. Ever heard of a 'Laser scanning vibrometer'? I hadn't either and I have to say it sounds vaguely rude. However the google ads that pop up have not become any more unsuitable than they were before, so their algorithms see nothing wrong with it. 

http://www.ndt.net/article/v04n12/tomasini/tomasini.htm 

Finally, I wanted to learn how I could take plaster off a wall. I'm not sure that Celia would think this the best way, but I love this YouTube video!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KroAfHVx4zo 

Anyway, as I said, chapter 7 is on its way, but is currently only half finished. It should be ready on Friday. Come and have a look then.

Chapter 5 - The visitor from Croatia

Danse Macabre -

St Mary of the Rock, Beram

 Here, finally, is chapter 5. I apologise for the amount of time this took but for some reason I found it hard. I had to do quite a lot of research about the work of picture restorers and try to establish what could be a realistic object for Celia to have to work on. 

However, with this chapter the plot is slowly starting to gain contour. So far there has been a lot of scene setting but here we are beginning to  approach the heart of the story which is quite exciting. This means that my next chapter will be chapter 7, where Celia will be in Croatia for the first time and starts to think that her brother may be alive after all. Hmmh!

Anyway, I hope you enjoy chapter 5 and please send me comments. I look forward to them.
For new readers - the story so far:
Celia Thomas works as a fine art restorer in Munich. Sixteen years previously her brother Ned Atkinson - a journalist - was killed during the fighting in Bosnia Herzegovina. Celia has no reason to believe that this was anything other than a dreadful accident but there is in fact more to his death than meets the eye. 
In this chapter Celia is asked by her boss to meet a wealthy Croatian businessman who wants her help.

Chapter 5  can now be found in 'Good Stuff' on the right.