The best part of being a conservator, Laura Stirton Aust says, is the intimacy one has with art, even when that art is the size of a postage stamp.

Aust, AS '87M, owns the New York-based ARTcare Inc., which provides consulting and conservation services to private and corporate collectors, as well as museums and nonprofit institutions. Currently, she is serving on a team of conservators and other professionals who are involved in a painstaking process of restoring New York City's Stettheimer Dollhouse, right down to the miniature prints by famous artists on the walls.

Made by socialite Carrie Walter Stettheimer, one of three sisters who lived and entertained in grand style on Manhattan's West 58th Street after World War I, the two-story house is a popular exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York. Stettheimer worked on the house for 20 years, and its ballroom is decorated with miniature versions of artworks by Marcel Duchamp, Gaston Lachaise and others.

Aust first became involved in 1993, and the physical restoration began two years ago. Much of the work is being done at the museum, where the dollhouse "is a wonderful" and much-cherished exhibit, she says.

The dollhouse has been spruced up over the years to hide the deterioration caused by heat, humidity, the aging of materials and other factors. For example, it was enclosed in a cube of Plexiglas and was illuminated from within by tiny electric lights, meaning that it was "baking" in there for quite some time, Aust says.

Meanwhile, intricately costumed dolls, as well as extensive Christmas decorations, have been added over the years. These additions clearly have changed the original and may deviate from the artist's vision for her creation. But, they "are part of the history of the object," Aust says, adding that the question now among the members of the team of curators and conservators is "what do we take it back to?"

In addition to restoring the paper artworks, Aust is working on the aluminum-leaf wallpaper, lamp shades and other paper products from the interior. About half the paper and textile restoration is finished and the structural repairs are done. Much of the remaining work awaits the design of a fiber-optic lighting system to replace those hot little bulbs.

Given that much conservation work is solitary, being part of a team is a different, and enjoyable, experience, Aust says.

After graduating from Virginia Commonwealth University with a bachelor's degree, she worked in a frame shop. Seeing customers come in with prints that had been severely damaged--"they would just crumble in your hands," she recalls--deepened her interest in conservation. Aust went on to posts as a conservation assistant, intern and apprentice, respectively, at the Virginia Museum in Richmond, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., and the Upper Midwest Conservation Association in Minneapolis.

Aust says she chose to pursue her graduate degree at Delaware because of the relationship between the University and Winterthur and because it offered "three years totally devoted" to conservation--"a very intense and special experience."

By graduation, Aust was certain she wanted to work in corporate collections. There were a lot of conservators coming into the job market and corporate "seemed like a good niche," she says.

Aust founded ARTcare "almost right out of school" and has been in business for herself ever since. She's restored everything from prints by Henri Matisse to vintage wallpaper, from fire and flood-damaged historic documents to old mortgages and legal papers.

Most folks would probably conclude that the older the paper, the worse the condition, but that's not necessarily the case, she says. "Typically, if it's more than 150 years old, it's in great condition."

That's because prior to the mid-1800s--when paper was a much more special medium than it is today--most of it was made from cotton, linen or rags. Since then, most paper has been made of wood pulp.

"Wood pulp makes a very short-fibered paper," Aust says. "Cotton and linen have longer fibers and are not processed as much. And, you don't find some of the impurities you find in wood."

Conversely, the materials available to mat prints today are of better quality and typically much less acidic than those that were used earlier in the 20th century.

By far, the most important factor in the condition of any paper is "the type of life it has had," she notes. For example, a print may arrive backed with other material. Sometimes it has been glued or taped. Dried out cellophane tape, which leaves behind an acidic adhesive that stains the paper, "is among the worst."

When not practicing paper conservation, Aust spends time with her family working on their 90-year-old house in Pelham, N.Y. Her husband, Tom, is an industry analyst, and they have two children, Anne and Taylor.