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.