Conservation of Hats Through an Intern’s Eyes by Emma Hartikka Whodunnit – Labels as Clues to the Past When working with historical objects, you quickly become interested in the aspects hiding behind the purely tangible features such as materials, structure, technique, colors, style and damages. This is the case even with the 21 Worthing hats. …
The Westminster Abbey Funeral Effigies Layers! One of the most fascinating but problematic things about redressing the effigies were the multiple layers of clothing (some wearing as many as 18 items!). The under layers were often fine and beautiful and never seen – there because that is how they were worn in life, or just …
Conservation of Hats Through an Intern’s Eyes Challenges of Intern Life and Old Hats The first month with the hats has been full of learning and important revelations for me. Getting to know the hats and their sometimes peculiar needs has taken time and energy as well as familiarising myself with the studio, its people …
Conservation of Hats Through an Intern’s Eyes The Beginning Twenty-one old, gorgeous hats, all at once within your reach. Not to wear, though, but to preserve. Torment or a treat? Let’s find out! I am Emma, a second-year textile conservation student from Metropolia University of Applied Sciences, situated in Helsinki, Finland. I got an exciting …
The main themes of this last busy year seem to have been dust and BIG, complex, dirty textiles. Oh and scaffolding. We bought our own scaffold tower this year and then had to buy extensions to make it even taller. The new equipment is great but what makes these big projects possible is the amazing …
For its winter exhibition ‘Inside the Collection’ Scotney Castle celebrates ten years of public access by delving into its own stores for inspiration. This card-adorned fancy dress costume was recently uncovered in the castle’s costume collection, worn and accumulated by the Hussey family from the late eighteenth century until the house was left to the …
“The word of the day is lambrequin”, was one of the comments on our Facebook page in response to a posting about the conservation of the Leeds Castle Drawing Room lambrequin. A lambrequin is a short piece of decorative drapery, in this case hung below the elaborate cornice of the Drawing Room over the top …
Part two – April 2017 Once the initial condition survey of the colours was completed, Heather Newton Head of Conservation at Canterbury Cathedral came to the studio to discuss and negotiate the way forwards. We had many competing and sometimes contradictory aspects to consider not least our conservator’s gut instinct to want to conserve the …
Part one – January 2017 Shortly before Christmas we got an extra special delivery to the Brighton studio; a collection of 39 Canterbury Cathedral colours, predominantly from The East Kent Regiment Buffs Chapel and some from one of the cathedral Transepts. The Buff’s Chapel is currently closed for cleaning and the flags’ necessary removal for …
Continue reading “A Multi- Coloured Mission – Keeping the Canterbury Colours in Flight”
After a great response to our end of 2015 newsletter, From Caffoys to Cowboys, we’ve decided to make it a yearly tradition and round off what has been a hectic year