British Museum - Experience our Arctic exhibition from home | Conservation

 

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The Citi exhibition Arctic: culture and climate From caribou fur to seal skin, our conservators have worked with an array of incredible materials used by Arctic Peoples to make the objects in our (temporarily closed) exhibition. Each is testimony to the ingenuity of Arctic Peoples, making sure that no part of any animal goes to waste, and all available resources are used to make beautiful yet practical items. Keep reading to find out how conservator Sophie Louise Rowe went about treating two bags made from delicate fish skin, or iqertiit in the Yup’ik language. Find out more Lead supporter Supported by

To understand how fish skin is prepared, Sophie travelled to Sweden to learn how to make fish leather with expert tanner Lotta Rahme. Although the process itself can be a little smelly at times, the resulting skins do not smell at all, and are soft and strong.

As the bags had started to sag under their own weight – creasing and tearing as a result – they were placed in a higher humidity environment. This allowed the team to gently and carefully relax the leather and make it temporarily more flexible, so that it could be reshaped.

The edges of the tears could then be brought back together using little temporary sticky tabs, made of Japanese tissue. These work almost like sutures. Japanese tissue is commonly used to repair tears as its long fibres make it very strong for such a thin material. It is also flexible and safe to use with leather.

In the show, the smaller bag is illuminated to show off the amazing translucent qualities of the fish skin. Opaque Japanese tissue repairs would show in the light, so Sophie used a material called Goldbeaters skin. This is processed intestine, traditionally from an Ox, often used to repair parchment. The final results are almost invisible!

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