Emma Schmuecker
Emma Schmuecker is a Conservator at the Royal Armouries Museum based in Leeds.
Biography
Emma graduated from De Montfort University with a BA (hons) in Conservation and Restoration in 1999 specialising in gilded and decorative surfaces. After graduation she was contracted to work at Manchester City Art Gallery as a frames conservator preparing over 400 frames for the re-opening of the Gallery in 2002.
During that time she also worked for two years as a part-time gilding tutor at Manchester College of Arts and Technology for their BA (hons) furniture restoration course. After that three-year stint in Manchester she moved to London to study an MA in the Conservation of Social History and Applied Arts Objects at the RCA/V&A course, and also study as an intern at the Museum of London and ArtLab Australia in Adelaide.
Although still very interested in the techniques and conservation of decorative surfaces she focuses on metals and wrote her thesis Historical Iron: Surface Stabilisation and Appearance. After graduation in 2004 she joined the Royal Armouries as a conservator.
Recent publications:
“Conservation: Armour.” Museums and Heritage 1:2008, pp 49-50
“The conservation and display of a Japanese helmet.” Arms and Armour Vol. 4, No. 2, 2007
“A survey of current methods for the stabilisation of historic iron.” Conservation News 94, January 2005, pp 31-33