Our committee

Nicola Shreeve originally trained at the London College of Furniture and has over 25 years’ experience as a self-employed furniture and picture frames restorer/conservator undertaking projects for private individuals and several significant historic houses.

A longstanding ambition to work as a specialist conservator in the museum and heritage sector led Nicola to study for a BA(Hons) Conservation of Wood, Stone, and Decorative Surfaces at City and Guilds of London Art School. For her MA, she undertook the technical investigation into, and conservation of, the post-Reformation polychrome alabaster monument to Sir Richard Pecksall (d.1571) in the Chapel of St Edmund, Westminster Abbey.

Nicola is now the Remedial Conservator for Furniture for the National Trust, based at the Royal Oak Foundation conservation studio at Knole, Kent.

I have been a member of the Committee for 2 and half years as treasurer.

At the time I joined the committee, I was working for The Granary Conservation Studio working on wood and furniture objects. Since then I have changed tack somewhat and now I'm a textiles conservator working for Janie Lightfoot Textiles LLP. I now work on a wide variety of textiles.

My original career was as a scientist with a BSc in Biology. Following a change in personal circumstances, I attend Lincoln University taking their Graduate Diploma in Conservation Studies and then the MA in Conservation of Historic Objects. 

I can honestly say that I don't regret it. Gold work for me means something slightly different but I like to hear and help with the organising of a different area of the Conservation field.

I developed an interest in gilded and decorative surfaces during my post-graduate diploma in Conservation Studies at City & Guilds.

I have since been fortunate to work within this specialism in a number of settings, including the Painted Hall in Greenwich, Knole Conservation Studio, the National Portrait Gallery, and private practice. I am currently working as a Frame Conservator at the Guildhall Art Gallery, while continuing to treat objects for private clients.

I joined the committee in 2019 in order to become more involved in the wider conservation community, and to meet more people in my field.

Qualified objects conservator with a demonstrated history working in museums, non-profit organizations & private companies in UK & Greece. Upon completion of my undergraduate degree in Greece in 2015 I moved to the UK to continue my postgraduate studies at Cardiff University and currently pursuing a second MSc degree in Conservation of Cultural Heritage by University of West Attica.

Have been working as a freelance conservator since 2017 collaborating with institutions such as the National Trust, the Wiltshire & Swindon History Center, & the Brecknock Museum & Art Gallery and currently I am part of the Cliveden Conservation Team for almost 3 years working on decorative plaster & stone conservation. Passions of mine are sustainability and decorative surfaces as well as 3D documentation.

Maria Sanchez Carvajal obtained a degree in Fine Arts, followed by a Master’s degree in Paintings Conservation and Restoration from the University of Granada. Her working experience has taken place mostly in Spain, and later here in the UK working on various cultural heritage projects, both privately and within the public sector, including canvas, mural paintings, and many altarpieces. She has worked as a freelance for the National Trust at the Knole Conservation Studio on frames and decorative surfaces since the beginning of 2018, as well as privately and for other institutions, spent the summer 2019 conserving mural paintings in Amsterdam and since 2022 has become full time National Trust member of staff  as decorative surfaces conservator.  

Silvia is graduated in paintings and furniture conservation at the University of Turin, Italy, with a thesis on Asian lacquer. After an internship at the Metropolitan Museum of Art working on a Coromandel lacquer screen she was awarded an internship at the Rijksmuseum to gain further experience in lacquer conservation, where she later worked as a Junior Furniture Conservator. After freelancing in Italy, she is now a Paintings Conservation Fellow at The National Gallery of London.

After originally studying Archaeology, I went on to become an Objects conservator and graduated from UCL’s MA and MSc in 2013. I have always had a particular interest in decorative surfaces because of their complexity, and because they often involve both organic and inorganic materials and require complex decision making.

After graduation I worked, among others, for Cambridge Museums and the National Trust, where I was the Objects and Decorative Surfaces conservator at the then brand new Knole Conservation Studio. I am now Sculpture conservator at the V&A.

I am very interested in engagement and training and have worked at UCL in research projects as well as supervising and training MSc students in their practical work. I still lecture there on the conservation of painted and decorative surfaces.