Caring For Textiles

Textiles enrich our lives. We preserve, repair, restore & display.

Textiles on the Range

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By Julia M Brennan

American quilts are truly a local art form and very much alive.

In the little Western Slope Colorado town of Palisade (population 2,700) which is famous for its peaches, I found a quilt maker who has been creating rag rugs and quilts for the last 50+ years. Even now with limited vision and painful arthritis, Mrs. Doris Shehan, age 76, keeps busy re-purposing the fabrics and old clothing from her daughter’s household. During the non-peach season, there is lots of time for quilting, sewing, knitting. Many of the stalls at the local farmer’s markets show how industrious the women are.

This is Mrs. Doris’s most recent quilt. It took over 6 months to create—made entirely from her grandchildren’s jeans, of every size, shape, shade of blue, and some styled with rhinestone pockets and jazzy embroidery. Mrs. Doris reused all these cast-off jeans, cutting out the worn-torn knees, fannies, and cuffs, and patching them together in the most durable but tender quilt. I don’t know the grandchildren, nor remember them wearing each pair of jeans, but for Mrs. Doris, this quilt is like a scrapbook. She must have lovingly relived many moments of her grandkid’s lives, as she stitched together the stories of their young years told through their jeans.

A truly Americana folk art motif, Sunbonnet Sue and the sunflower are appliqued on both sides. A thick batting and soft polar fleece backing make this a super snuggly quilt. In fact, the jeans are so heavy, it is practically a ‘weighted’ blanket.

For now, this beautiful piece of quilt art has found a home in our 1910 Basque Sheepherders wagon; keeping us warm on the cool nights. Even on a hot 90 F day, nights can plunge 30 or 40 degrees. I’m certain the walls of the sheep wagon are talking with its new companion, happily at home on the range.

P.S. Denim was not the only thing in full bloom…

Slow Down and Listen to the Stitching

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by Julia M Brennan and Anna Tendler Mulaney

In these hurried days leading up to the holidays, we invite you to slow down and engage in a little stitching meditation.

The elaborate overlaying patterns are applied with fine drawing or stencils, and a rice paste in a resist-dye method known as yuzen. Developed at the end of the 17th century, this technique of handcrafting elaborate cloth, sometimes imitates aristocratic brocades, is very time consuming and expensive, and today remains highly prestigious

Listen.

Pictured above is a late 19th c Meiji period Japanese uchikake, a ceremonial robe custom made for a bride. It is decorated with symbols from the golden age of the Heian Period (794–1185). Think Lady Murakasi’s epic romantic novel The Tale of Genji. The Heian Imperial Court was known for its luxurious ceremonies, romances, and exquisite arts. This highly stylish robe was worn publicly to show the sophistication and historic knowledge of the bride and her family. Even though the Heian period was long over, the public would have been able to ‘read’ this garment and be very impressed with the level of culture and arts.

Soften your gaze. Inhale patience.

Couching the gold metallic threads requires good eyesight and patience.

Exhale. Realign.

Tangled and disassociated threads are realigned, then re-stitched or couched using fine thread.

Like the courtly mannerisms of the Heian period, each repair stitch is a thoughtful meditative action to create something of beauty.

Meditation:

“…every stitch requires listening and responding to what the fabric might need…the action of looking, thinking, tending, touching, intuiting …entwines into an embodied knowledge, a soft technique, during which the ameliorative thread is sewn this way and that.” 

(Manual RISD 2018, Liza Z. Morgan)

Below, note the family crest or kamon of the Tachibana clan—roundel with a blue flower on a white ground—this uchikake contains five. Treatment involves the delicate re couching around the hexagonal patterned central motif, or kikko or the tortoise of longevity.  The floating rectangles are painted poems on mulberry leaves.

 

 

Adorable Alert: Christening Gown Photos…Baby Included!

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We work on quite a few christening dresses here at Caring for Textiles.

However, we don’t often get to see the final result once we send these precious pieces on their way. Imagine our delight when we received a greeting in the mail with two photos of a gown we had worked on—and the adorable bundle of joy it was meant for! It made our day and not a few happy tears were shed, knowing we had played a small part in the joy of a new family by caring for their lovely family heirloom. Thank you to the Gore family for letting us be a part of your family history and for letting us share your beautiful story!

The Bobbinet Blog, or “Tulle Tales”

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By Julia Brennan and Kaitlyn Munro

Recently I met my lovely friend Claire Chen, who was wearing a gossamer tulle skirt, which fluttered around her like a butterfly. It was enchanting, so was she, and my curiosity about tulle was stirred. I started noticing the tulle explosion everywhere …… in the fashion magazines Chanel, Dior, Mango, Topshop, H&M were vying for romantic coverage of their blithe poufy creations. Familiar from childhood mostly as ballet tutus, or that stiff white net of my 1960’s Holy Communion veil, it is, in fact, a most important and compelling fabric in my everyday conservation profession………as the nearly sheer material we use as a protective overlay to treat damaged fabrics. My relationship with tulle net is in fact very formal and prescribed.

Tulle net is an important part of our daily conservation activities…

…but meanwhile, tulle is popping up all over!

New York Times Magazine, April 29, 2018

So, what is the story of tulle? And, what is the difference between tulle and bobbinet?

Pictured here is Dukeries old twist hand bobbinet machine, which is quite small and rare, built in the 1850 ‘s. Workers in those days had to build their own small bobbinet machine before they were allowed on the large bobbinet machines!

The story starts with bobbin lace, its net-like structure, painstakingly handmade, by interlacing threads over and under. More mechanized methods started in the 16th c with ‘knitting’ or stocking frame machine. In the early 1800’s, in the UK, a Mr. John Heathcoat, studied the hand movements of bobbin lace makers and replicated them into a new invention—the bobbin net machine. The term bobbinet refers to the machine made net fabric that we use today, and is also known as tulle.

Compare & contrast: Bobbinet structure vs. Dukeries Silk Bobbinet vs. Dukeries Nylon Monofilament

Today, I purchase conservation 100% nylon bobbinet from an ingenious man who is still using the same 19thc machinery and the exact same “knitting” process. Mr. Lawrence (aka Dukeries) sells bobbinet and other fine tulles to the conservation trade, as well as to lingerie and costume sectors.

Susie Plaisted of Winkworth Brooklyn, (Instagram @Winkworthbklyn) designs a delicious fall wedding dress of lace organically layered onto a cotton bobbinet petticoat. Delighted, the lovely bride-to-be Alex Delare, danced for each fitting…….

The name ‘tulle’ originates from the French city of Tulle, (turf of politicians Chirac and Holland). Here, around 1700, the French began to knit a fabric with hexagonal meshes, similar to a honeycomb. Later, Queen Victoria wore meters of fluffy WHITE tulle bobbinet as her wedding dress, establishing the tradition that continues today. What’s a wedding dress without tulle? In the 19th c, designers like Worth started layering it underneath skirts, adorning the outside of dresses, and draping it over hats, shielding a woman’s face like a fashionable veil.

Little Dancer Aged Fourteen by Edgar Degas, at The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Ballet dancers adopted fluffy sculptural accent skirts called ‘tutu’ – immortalized by Degas’s sensuous pastels and the statues of the single dancer…..The NGA Washington DC, has the original wax and clay statuette, with a silk tulle skirt (Five layers!) This is the only little dancer that Degas had his physical hand in making. There is the possibility that the extant tutu is indeed the one Degas exhibited in 1881. Or to learn more about the sculpture, explore this link. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC, recently replaced the tutu on their Degas bronze dancer with a gauze fabric…this fascinating conservation project can be seen here.  

Today tulle is a global industry; made of silk, cotton, wool, polyamide, polyester, lurex; it comes soft, stiff, sparkly, ‘invisible’, elastic, chemical free, and in hundreds of colors.Tremendously fun, versatile and dramatic, the uses for tulle are endless, from Mardi Gras floats to mosquito nets; you can flock it, print on it, laminate it, dye it, stitch it, crunch it. 

 

*  “Because I could not stop for Death –

He kindly stopped for me- […]

The Dews drew quivering and Chill –

For only Gossamer, my Gown –

My Tippet – only Tulle –”

—Emily Dickinson – dressed for immortality
You can contact Dukeries directly:
Lawrence Taylor, Managing Director, Dukeries Textiles & Fancy Goods LTD
T: 0115 9816330; F: 0115 9816440  |  [email protected]

 

Gloriously Blessing the Baby…and Restoring the Glory to the Gown

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Over the years we have cleaned, conserved, and repaired hundreds of historic christening dresses. Each one is different, short or long, tiered or sheer, embroidered or laced, pleated or smocked – each with its own family stories. Most have very yellowed ‘bib’ areas from sweet milky spittle, and often a host of rips and tears…..it seems that no matter how big the babe is, parents must squeeze the wee one into the family gown.

In the galleries that follow, you can see some of the typical stitch repairs to these gossamer voile dresses…

Gowns are photographed, often wet cleaned to remove any ‘sugar’ stains from milk or parents’ champagne, and the dark yellow brown discoloration from acids.

Painting by Michael Ancher, c 1885. Ribe Kunst Museum.

Recently, I was in Denmark for the ICOM CC Triennial Congress, where I stumbled upon this precious painting of a christening. I’ve never seen a painting of a christening, much less one with such exquisite detail of the gown, showing the tactility of the white cotton, as well as the significance and tenderness of the ceremony. Here, in a sparse 19th c Danish Lutheran church, a small group of loved ones gathers around the child. The painter makes the glimmering white dress the center of the canvas, accentuated by the visual pause between the child and the minister.

Like a mirror, this painting reinforces the importance of my preservation work.

 

 

 

 

painting by P. Ilsted, 19th c.

Perhaps the baby in Ancher’s painting above grew up into this darling little girl, stitching by the window… 

Field Trip: Williamsburg, Virginia

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We visit “Printed Fashions: Textiles for Clothing and the Home”

By Kaitlyn Munro

Lauren and I recently returned from a fabulous trip to Colonial Williamsburg (Virginia) to attend the symposium, Printed Fashions: Textiles for Clothing and the Home. We were honored to present a paper “Burn Out”, about a range of conservation techniques for stabilizing damaged 18th century printed textiles. There were many wonderful papers and so much important research presented on the history of these vibrant textiles. In conjunction with the symposium, a new exhibit celebrates Colonial Williamsburg’s impressive printed textile collection, including some never before displayed pieces.

So many garments to study and admire!

You, dear reader, have plenty of time to check out the exhibit yourself since it will be up for two years!

We also had the chance to explore Duke of Gloucester Street where we popped in the weaver shop.

Beautifully dyed skeins of yarn hung above the fireplace.

Finally, you can’t visit Colonial Williamsburg without taking silly pictures in the stocks!

If you would like to learn more about weavers in colonial America, visit this site.

Read more about “Printed Fashions: Textiles for Clothing and the Home.”

In Fond Memory of Olive B. Graffam

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Olive B. Graffam,  Curator of Collections, Daughters of the American Revolution, DAR Museum

It is rare and wonderful to work with the same client for nearly 20 years…and over this time a treasured relationship developed; tender, deeply thoughtful, and professional. We got to know each other’s families, and grandchildren by name, and shared our challenges and happiness through a continuous thread of conversations. She took a very special interest in my teaching and traveling in Asia…Olive was someone I always thought about, from long long distances, needle art all over the world reminded me of her.

Olive had an astounding knowledge and passion for the samplers and textiles that she was the Curator for at the DAR Museum for so many years. She knew the collection like a hand of cards; and could tell stories about each sampler, and what characteristics were common to those from say Alexandria Va. or Pottstown PA.  Because of her scholarship, DAR members entrusted her with the needle art from their families, and the collection grew under her stewardship. From Olive I learned a lot, about American samplers, in particular. Whenever a question about a sampler arose, Olive was the first person I called. She was so generous with her knowledge.

She entrusted me, as a conservator, to work on over 80 samplers in the DAR collection. Many needed to come off old acidic cardboard or cotton, and be carefully tested and de acidified. Other steps included repairs, stabilizations, and either stitch mounting the sampler to a padded support for framing, or a passive mat for long term storage  (often done in collaboration with Bill Butler, at Archival Arts).

When I first met Olive, her husband Earl, would always drive her to work and to my studio to drop off or collect the samplers and textiles. Like a gentleman, he waited in the car, and would never ever accept my offer of a coffee or armchair inside. After Ernie died, we all started going to the DAR to meet with Olive and collect the samplers. She took a taxi to and from work. Olive died at the age of 85, and had only retired last year.

Here are some of Olive’s favorite samplers we conserved over the years.

Articles and more to see and read….

Read a review of her 2008 Schoolgirl sampler exhibit here.

Among others, Olive published this article:
Telling Their Stories: 19th Century Samplers and Silk Needlework

She was also engaged in the Sampler Archive

The ‘Lesage’ of Lao: Master Tiao Somsanith

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Julia and TiaoI recently met Tiao Nithakhong Somsanith at the 5th International Conference on Lao Studies, in Bangkok.  He transformed a drab classroom into a sacred space—golden embroideries of the Buddha, lace-like stencils of angels hovering like snowflakes on the windows overlooking the Chao Praya river, and an aura of the timelessness that imbues these ancient arts.

Amongst this glimmering beauty, is Tiao Nith, a spry, multi lingual, elegantly dressed, spontaneous man, with an infectious laugh.

As a child of royal lineage in 1960’s Luang Prabang, Lao, he grew up surrounded by courtly arts, such as painting, lacquer, embroidery, and dance. He watched his grandmother and mother patiently practice this aristocratic art, making traditional triangular pillows, royal sashes and sabai, jackets, collars and dowry pieces. They delicately worked the precious gold threads, imported from Dorures Charles Mathieu, a French company that historically supplied these luxury threads to the Lao royalty.

Even though embroidery was a woman’s work, the young Tiao Nith apprenticed until he reached the level of a mo, or gold embroidery expert. Additionally, he became a doctor and practiced in rural Lao, and later psychology in France, where he sought asylum. The family embroideries were exquisite, and he managed to save a few pieces to inspire and teach today’s students.

You can get ‘stuff’ from your genes, but not everyone does such remarkable things with their hidden gifts….

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[Show slideshow]

Tiao Nith is both a guardian of the traditional techniques and designs, and a contemporary artist, exploring the limitations of the artform.

His contemporary embroideries are transcendent; the attenuation of threads into golden grasses that appear to be blowing in the wind, or stitched leaf carcasses that look like they are dipped in gold and laid on silk…..or the nearly abstract wall hangings of embroidered monastic codes, like Surrealist automatic writing, twisted golden script copied from ancient Pali palm leaf manuscripts—transforming one message into another medium.

What a special new friend in the global circle of textiles.

Tiao Nith will participate in an exhibit (August 15-20, 2016) and receive an award at the SACICT Foundation,  Support Arts And Crafts International Center of Thailand. He teaches, works in Luang Prabang, Nan, Thailand, and France.

Puppet Masters: Conservation in Miniature

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The Workshop Team

The Workshop Team

In the first partnership of its kind,

I led the The Queen Sirikit Museum of Textiles in Bangkok and the Taiyuan Asian Puppet Museum in Taipei for a puppet textile conservation training workshop.

In the lively one-week session, conservators Nuchada Piranprasankit and Yaowalak Bunnag, from the Queen Sirikit Museum of Textiles, and I trained staff at the Puppet Museum  in techniques and treatments for these tiny marvels from the permanent collection of the Taiyuan Asian Puppet Theatre Museum 台原亞洲偶戲博物館。

My own knowledge also expanded as we learned all about the history of hand puppets and marionettes, their construction and fabrication, use and wear, and the marvelous artistic ‘culture’ of puppeteers. It was such a change from the usual treatment of human-size costumes and monumental banners and tapestries. Our hands and eyes were captivated by the tiny little costumes of hand puppets from the 1800 and 1900s with their tiny embroidery, applique, buttons and trim.

 

EnchantingI was enchanted!

Surprisingly, many of these puppet costumes are exact replicas of full size pieces – gold embroidered dragon robes, scholars gowns, rank badges, golden courtesan dresses – but all in miniature! And although it is challenging to work on these tiny artifacts, we were able to treat over 15 costumes in a week – an impossibility in the world of large textiles.

After transforming the collections workroom into a puppet hospital, we were abuzz with conservation discussions, wet cleanings, stitch repairs, and re-assembly of these exquisite soulful little darlings.

Like doctors, Nuchada, Yaowalak and I patiently worked using fine delicate support fabrics, sheer overlays, special threads that are as fine as human hair, and surgical needles, to re-construct and repair these small precious puppet costumes. We worked closely with Kim Seibert and Alex Ma, collection specialists and custodians of the over 10,000 puppets. In addition, staff from the Fujen Catholic University joined in the training.

Several 19th century costumes were wet cleaned. Worn down from heavy use, perspiration from the puppeteers’ hands, and being traditionally stored in large wood transport boxes, these costumes are very brittle, dry and acidic. First each fabric was carefully tested, and then the costumes were wet cleaned, using a traditional saponin, our local soap nuts [無患子]. Saponin is similar in chemical composition to sodium laurel sulfate, a surfactant commonly used by conservators. The careful cleaning removed the acidity, and made the fabrics cleaner and softer, so they will live longer.

I am hopeful that this workshop will be the start of a long-term partnership between the two museums. As Nuchada and Yaowarat reflected as they headed home to Bangkok:

Most of the time, we work on Her Majesty’s couture clothing. Conserving puppet costumes is different! They are so small! Everything is in miniature, making the time of the treatment shorter, but also so very delicate and difficult. We learned so much about puppet costumes and this amazing tradition of performance and storytelling through ‘live action textiles’. We take home to Thailand a greater understanding of our region, and why textiles, little and big, are so important in all our lives.”

Great partnership with Dr. Lin

Great partnership with Dr. Lin

Here, the founder of the Puppet Museum, Dr Paul Lin, in a good exchange in the expertise of a surgeon and a textile conservator, acknowledging each other and how they use similar tools—like curved steel surgical needles, and techniques—techniques to ‘fix’ and care for people patients and as well the textiles! A Eureka moment!
一位外科醫師、一位修復師開心地笑了，他們懂、無論是人還是織，修復的方法相當類似。]

Let’s Hear it for the Boys #3: The All-American Installment

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The final post in Julia’s three-part series dedicated to the gentleman.

If you missed my first two posts on ‘man-centric’ textiles (or if you just loved them so much and you want to reread) – you can find the first post here, and the second post can be found here.

Over the years, Caring for Textiles has had the opportunity to conserve the textiles of some of America’s most well-known and historically significant men – including our founding father George Washington, the celebrated President Abraham Lincoln, and baseball greats Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. It has been both a privilege and challenge to work on iconic pieces that are part of the fabric of our culture and history.

I’m always incredibly nervous when treasures like these arrive for treatment. All intervention must be scrupulously considered – each touch, stitch, surface cleaning or added material is carefully weighed; I rigorously maintain that less is better.

George Washington’s Waistcoats

Imagine holding George Washington’s French silk embroidered waistcoat in your hands! I had the good fortune to work on three of these amazing articles of clothing; it makes one tremble to think the great man himself wore these very pieces some 250 years ago.

This delicate French embroidered silk waistcoat was completely shattered and powdering. A sheer overlay of polyester stabiltex was used to encapsulate the entire front of the silk, and then stitched along the same embroidery seam lines beneath. Once stabilized, a customized half form was fabricated for temporary display at GW Mount Vernon Estate and Museum.

Abraham Lincoln’s GreatcoatAL1

There are many moments of satisfaction in my work, but delicately stitching the tears in the coat that President Lincoln wore the night he was assassinated – magical and overwhelming!
This is when I am convinced of the importance of textile conservation, and how it contributes to our shared history for generations to come.

This greatcoat was made by New York City’s Brooks Brothers in 1864 on the occasion of Lincoln’s second inaugural. The patriotic themed lining was hand-quilted by one of the firm’s best stitchers who, having retired, executed the commission as piece-work from her home. The great coat exhibited at Ford’s Theatre is an exact replica made by Brooks Brothers. The original coat is carefully preserved for scholarship and posterity.

The coat was draped over the back of the President’s chair at Ford’s Theater the night he was killed.

 

 

The missing sleeve and shoulder are a result of ‘souvenir takers,’ who blithely took pieces of the coat, as well as the bed sheets and wallpaper of the chamber where Lincoln lay dying. Mary Todd gave the coat to Lincoln’s favorite valet in the White House, who held it in safe-keeping with the family until his heirs sold it to the Park Service in 1968.

Since it has been displayed with one side of the coat open to reveal the unique inscription in embroidery, the silk wool fabric has disintegrated from light and exposure. Several conservation campaigns have included applying selective overlays of sheer polyester stabiltex over these fragile areas.

Babe Ruth

BR_1“Beibu Rusu” is how half a million excited Japanese fans greeted Babe Ruth when he arrived for the All Star Games in 1934.

Ruth acquired this Japanese ‘happy coat’ when staying in Frank Lloyd Wright’s famous Tokyo Imperial Hotel (circa 1922).

Coat interior with the hotel name and bold 1930’s deco illustration

Coat interior with the hotel name and bold 1930’s deco illustration

Julia Ruth Stevens, Ruth’s daughter, recounts how, when Pearl Harbor was bombed, Babe took his Japanese treasures and threw them out the window. Luckily for us, his family retrieved them!

Encrusted with dirt, stains, and full of cigar holes – this textile required more than 200 hours of conservation cleaning and treatment. It was both wet and solvent cleaned, and then reconstructed with insertions of orange and black silks, and overlays of sheer stabilitex.

 

1930s Lou Gehrig’s jersey 1930’s

LG_1Made of wool, Gehrig’s NY Yankees #4 jersey came to us in overall good condition. Prior to arriving at Caring for Textiles however, the jersey had been aggressively cleaned, which had caused large holes and tears in the shoulder and back.

Reconstruction included removing coarse repairs, re-aligning the wool warps and wefts, using a thin support fabric, and re-weaving and couching down the original pieces of the fibers and cloth.

Upon completion, all the neighborhood kids came to Caring for Textiles for a ceremonial viewing. Home run!

 

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about these pieces – I’ve had such fun looking back at these iconic pieces. I’m honored to be able to contribute to their longevity, and hope that they will be around for many generations to enjoy.

Source:

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2014/07/29/by-the-numbers-little-known-facts-about-the-babe-from-julia-ruth-stevens/

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