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Zenzie Tinker Conservation Ltd.

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Zenzie Tinker Conservation Ltd.

Conservation for Museums, Galleries and Private Collectors

http://www.zenzietinker.co.uk http://www.zenzietinker.co.uk

24/08/2026

Woop woop - check this out as the song goes!

New lab progress update:
We now have a finished lab grade work bench, new stainless steel splash backs, fully functioning sockets, dye hobs and drawers!

Thanks to the wonderful and robbiecraceandfriends our work surface has been cleverly designed to not block in our very annoying radiators (toasty toes in the winter) and the original lab drawers from when it was at the Wi******er campus have been reconfigured to work in pairs instead of fours. Extraction unit to go in next above the hobs and second splash back on this side ……

Big thank you to the ever gracious Robbie for his patience as we’ve tweaked the layout more times than I’d like to admit (you’ll notice the glass storage unit has been on both walls and that’s only one of the changes 🫤) but sometimes ones got to see things to realise they won’t do!

Next splash back up tomorrow I hope and then the team will start on the sink workbench at right angles to this one. I know the plumber is itching to get back to complete installation of all the plumbing on that side. And the electrician who’s made fabulous progress so far will be back after his hols.

Slowly slowly we are getting there 😊

built

22/08/2026

This week we returned once more to Bloomberg London to do our annual condition assessment of the beautiful Pomona textile artwork by Pae White that hangs in the Pre-Function Room. This more than 100m2, three panel textile is stretched around the circular room via horizontal bars. We’ve been looking after this work for around a decade now doing major work to retrospectively create a better hanging mechanism and add a dust proof lining but each time I go, I am struck again by its complexity and beauty as a textile.

It’s complex design of thousands of insects tumbling over a landscape of fields and streets far below shimmers in all its digital jacquard weave glory utilising a myriad threads of brightly coloured cashmere, subtle polyesters and many types and shades of metallic lurex and foil threads. Some areas almost drip like the finest cloth of silver, gold and bronze whilst others play on their complex textures and weave patterns. All this gorgeousness though creates a fragile surface very susceptible to abrasion and touch.

We’ve developed a way of carefully but quickly condition assessing every square cm of the artwork by dividing it into the same sections each year and recording any change on the previous year’s printout using a key. Changes in condition are discussed with HBox the art maintenance company who look after all the Bloomberg artworks on a weekly basis and then further monitoring is agreed or repairs actioned. It is a system that works very well.

This year, along with the condition check we undertook a light surface clean. We also dealt with various thread pulls and small areas of damage with stitching which involved some awkward sewing positions (see horizontal Jess stitching). Mira, Rhianne, Jess and I were delighted to be joined for the day by Falmouth University costume design student on work placement at ZTC this week. The “other”Jess as she’s been known all week, is learning more about textile conservation prior to deciding which direction to go in her post-grad studies. On the evidence of this week conservation seems like a great option!

20/08/2026

Last week our very delighted and delightful placement student Imani installed their completed Sufragette banner Worthing Museum & Art Gallery

Imani proudly explained their work to curators and Gerry as well as other staff and researchers before helping to hang it in the newly reopened textile and costume galleries. Against the most perfect coloured wall, the banner is the first of many banners, quilts and other flat textiles planned for display on the walls, alongside the gorgeous jewel-like colour themed display.

Elsewhere in the fabulous newly reopened museum, costume features large, wrapping right around the open costume study area. I can’t praise the redisplay highly enough - on a tiny budget the fabulous museum team have reimagined the entire museum focussing on their strengths - including costume, archaeology, and art. There are wonderful peaks into shelves full of toys and models including an amazing doll with an entire mini wardrobe in a travelling trunk and displays of delicious accessories, hats, shoes, buttons, sewing machines and printed ephemera. It was so gratifying to spot so many of the garments, hats and shoes we have conserved for the museum over the years, just like visiting old friends!

The new Worthing Museum even has its own unique typeface based on the early 20th century typography of the exterior of the building. It feels so light and airy after all the blocked in windows were opened up and bedecked with vision blinds and the horrible carpet tiles were ripped up to reveal the original parquet floors. Ever resourceful some of the original cases have been repainted and moved combining seamlessly with new. And like all public buildings now in enterprising eco Worthing, the new heat pump system means no heating costs from now on!

Bravo to Imani - and bravo to the fab Worthing museum team for all their hard work - it is a triumph!

16/08/2026

We were honoured yesterday on Polish Army Day to be invited to the Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum in London to take down the iconic flag which was hung over the ruins of the Monte Cassino monastery by the Polish II Corps after they finally took the monastery in May 1944. The four stage Battle of Monte Cassino involved Polish, British, American, Indian, French and New Zealand units and was one of the bitterest, bloodiest infantry engagements of WWII with 55,000 allied and 20,000+ German lives tragically lost.

We are proud to be working with Professor Monika Stachurska Wydział Konserwacji i Restauracji Dzieł Sztuki ASP Warszawa as part of a research and conservation project funded by the Polish National Foundation and Instytut POLONIKA | dziedzictwo kulturowe

This incredibly important flag will be cleaned, conserved and mounted by our studio over the coming months before being redisplayed inside a new display cabinet designed and commissioned by POLINIKA for the Polish Institute.

The flag is heavily soiled from many years on open display and starting to suffer structural damage from being sandwiched in net in the 1970s.

Working in front of Polish TV, radio and film makers, we carefully removed the flag from the wall and its wooden pole to allow digitisation and fibre sampling prior to rolling and packing for transport.

After a moving ceremony attended by descendants of soldiers from the Polish II Corps and representatives of the various institutions involved the boxed flag was carefully carried by Polish scouts out of the building to our waiting car and onwards to Brighton.

Images kindly taken and ©️ Dominika Novak-Kajtowska/POLONIKA.
Remaining images ©️ Zenzie Tinker Conservation

11/08/2026

Happy clients last week when I returned and installed the recently acquired Wykeham Martin Shako helmet to Leeds Castle, Kent after it was beautifully conserved and mounted by at the ZTC studio.

The complex, multi material helmet was worn by Charles Wykeham Martin, a former owner of Leeds Castle. This distinctive, bell-topped cylindrical military helmet is a West Kent Yeomanry Officer’s 1829-40 pattern Shako cap - a decorative piece of ceremonial headwear. Consisting mainly of beaver fur, patent leather, metal, horsehair and silk, the helmet was really engrained with soil as well as having two main structural issues. The metal chain scale (chinstrap) was too heavy for its damaged leather, velvet-lined strap and some of the scales were coming loose, whilst the internal silk headband was too split and detaching from the leather headband to allow safe display.

After detailed surface cleaning, Rhianne supported the damaged and brittle silk headband by encasing it in dyed net. A film of conservation adhesive was applied to the edge of the net to allow it to be adhered to the back of the leather headband where stitching was not possible. Once in place, via delicate work with a heated spatula, the silk was snuggly encased in the rest of the dyed net and held in place via stitching. Rhianne turned the cut edge in and stitched into some of the original stitch holes between the leather and silk headbands.

She was then able to focus on the heavy, weak chin scale or chinstrap. Two pieces of matching black velvet were prepared and sewn in behind either side of the chinstrap, covering the damaged velvet lining of the original leather strap. Once strengthened, the chin scales could be sewn through to the new velvet, repairing their attachment and transferring their weight through to the new stronger support.

A Preservation Equipment hat stand was adapted with a custom made internal mount and now the Shako helmet is able to be displayed pride of place in the castle, below a portrait of Charles Wykeham Martin at the bottom of the main staircase. Thank you to Leeds Castle for the project❤️

31/07/2026

Great day on Tuesday Wimbledon College of Arts skills sharing some of our methods of packing, safely transporting and storing costume with costume tutors, technicians and archivists organised by

It was a lovely relaxed, end of term session talking through the issues of packing and transporting often very elaborate and delicate 3d stage costumes for the student’s final degree shows at exciting off campus venues. Many of a conservator’s skills and experience are transferable and useful in connected professions.

Great as always to be teaching with Anna Golebiowska and Dr Veronica Isaac and great to be utilising our study collection in this way again.

We have a number of talks and training sessions aimed at BA and MA costume, history of design, cultural studies and museology students as well as their tutors and technicians. Do please get in touch to see how can help support your courses and study collections as well as enhance your teaching - we’d love to get involved!

27/07/2026

We are delighted to be hosting Imani Badillo from on a five week student placement at the ZTC studio.

Imani Badillo is a fibre artist and textile conservator currently based in Glasgow, UK. Exploring community relationships and shared memory, they work to create gift economies–networks of relationships built upon mutual gratitude–through treating objects of social and political history as well as through patchwork quilting.

Imarni is part way through treating a really wonderful Suffragette banner from Worthing Museum & Art Gallery to whom we are very grateful for providing an object within Imani’s list of particular interests. We will be visiting soon to check out the display scenario so that Imani can hopefully hang the banner once its conservation is complete

Swipe to see Imani’s careful couching and overlays of dyed net used to stabilise particular areas of the banner which will hang on open display in the new textile galleries at Worthing Museum.

25/07/2026

Great day mid week with Anna Golebiowska finally hanging the gorgeous Garden Museum tapestry that we completed the conservation of earlier in the year.

It is now on longterm display in the Ark Gallery at the museum hanging alongside a beautiful portrait of Phineas Pett c1612 by an unknown artist, on loan from the National Portrait Gallery. The connection is that the museum was founded to save the Tradescant tomb in the grounds of the museum - and Tradescant the Elder was plantsman to Charles I and he sailed on the Mercury, captained by Pett to the Barbary Coast in 1620 on a plant gathering trip.

After hanging the tapestry, Ania and I had tea sitting next to the beautiful sandstone tomb complete with carved crocodile in the beautiful garden cafe. The Ark Gallery explores the life of the Tradescants and recreates elements of “The Ark”, their original cabinet of curiosities which later helped form the basis of Ashmolean Museum, my childhood museum in Oxford.

The outfit worn by the nobleman visiting his garden and addressing the gardener and his wife in the Mortlake tapestry is dressed in very similar garb, if a little later in date, to the Pett portrait. They make a very handsome multi-media pair! So many multilayers of history and such a gorgeous museum (and a very excellent cafe restaurant and fab shop) - well worth another visit!

Swipe to see a few images of the tapestry during conservation in the studio earlier in the year, as well as a donors visit which we all really enjoyed.

Thank you to curator Emma House and the lovely Garden Museum team as well as the generous donors who made this wonderful project possible - it was hard to leave this gorgeous little tapestry behind ❤️

Congratulations and thank you to Ania and Hazel Icky Firdausy for their beautiful conservation work.

Address

93/93A Islingword Road
Brighton
BN29SJ

Opening Hours

Monday	10am - 5pm
Tuesday	10am - 5pm
Wednesday	10am - 5pm
Thursday	10am - 5pm
Friday	10am - 5pm

Telephone

+441273685222

Website

http://www.zenzietinker.co.uk/

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