A hectic morning. I gritted my teeth and cleaned up my eight sticky etching plates. Took over an hour to get them back to the state they were in before I actually started doing anything with them … but we won't dwell on that.
The rest of the time was spent rubbing the plaster relics with semi-skimmed milk. I remembered being told that milk smooths and soften the edges of plaster, making it a bit bone-like. Say no more – I was there. And the technique does work pretty well. Practically all the relics are finished, but I was frantically sloshing milk onto plaster (and onto various other surfaces that weren't intended to receive it) right until the last student had left and Emma was gently rattling the keys to the department.
On a less glamorous note, there is a terrible sickness bug going round the school, and the teachers are going down fast. All the art teachers have succumbed to some degree – poor Charley had to go home during the morning. I'm keeping my fingers crossed, and washing my hands frequently. I haven't got time to be ill now!
