Recipes, ingredients and tests of the various inks created by Jorji Gardener. Photograph by Grant Hancock.

The South Australia and Northern Territory division of the Australian Institute for the Conservation of Cultural Material (AICCM) is presenting a series of Chinwag Webinars scheduled monthly. They are short informal sessions for conservators and conservation scientists to share their experiences, findings, questions and solutions encountered during their work and are open to all AICCM members and external attendees.

Jorji Gardener, printmaker and volunteer at the South Australian Museum and Artlab Australia, presented her experience during the large scale conservation treatment of historical museum labels, from Captain S.A. White’s egg collection, belonging to the South Australian Museum. The labels are mainly written with iron-gall inks but also graphite pencils, ballpoint pen inks and copying pencils.

Jorji’s interest in the production of iron-gall ink and ornithology has led her to develop a unique art project resulting in an exhibition of drawings and launch of the book, Flight: An Illustrated Notebook of Bird Life and Loss by Jorji Gardener and Viv Szekeres, in August 2022, at the Hamra Auditorium Gallery in Adelaide.

The Chinwag covered a fusion of conservation, craftsmanship, ecology, sustainability and art.

The sixth Chinwag in this series was presented on 29 September 2022.

View this webinar and Series 1 to 5 at AICCM website