Category: Embroidery

Bleach Season at MTS

5/31/2016

We have been bleaching and wet cleaning a variety of textiles this spring at Museum Textile Services, including christening gowns, wedding gowns, coverlets, lace, and embroideries. Our favorite method employs the reductive bleaching agent sodium borohydride (NaBH4). Wetcleaning cotton and linen fibers with the addition of a sodium borohydride bath is beneficial both visually and chemically, resulting in healthier and brighter artifacts. Sodium borohydride cannot be used on protein fibers—such as silk and wool—because they are naturally acidic and the sodium borohydride solution is alkaline (approximately pH 10).

Christening gown, before bleaching.

Christening gown, after bleaching and blocking.

As cellulosic textiles age, hydroxyl groups (-OH) are converted to carbonyl groups (=O), which contribute to a dingy brown or yellow color. The chemical process known as reduction adds electrons to the cellulose fibers, stabilizing their molecular weight and returning carbonyl groups back to colorless hydroxyl groups. The combination of dissolved soils and cellulosic degradation often turn the wash bath the color of strong tea. The reaction of the sodium borohydride with water is also produces hydrogen gas bubbles, and the bath may give off a smell reminiscent of sulfur or chlorine. It is important to agitate the wash bath regularly to allow all sides of the textile to come in contact with the surface of the water where the chemical reaction is taking place.

Coverlet before bleaching (left) and after bleaching (right). Courtesy of Adams National Historical Park.

Paragon embroidery after bleaching.

Remarkably, sodium borohydride is a color safe way to bleach cellulosic textiles. Along with many white coverlets and quilts, we have bleached embroideries and samplers that have a linen or cotton ground and multi colored cotton thread. First, we test the color fastness of the colored threads. If there is dye bleed, the object is not a good candidate for full immersion wet cleaning. We have also had success bleaching a white rayon wedding dress from 1947. Rayon is a synthetically produced cellulosic fiber with a naturally high pH just like cotton, linen, and other plant fibers.

Coverlet, before bleaching. Courtesy Adams National Historical Park.

Coverlet, after bleaching. Courtesy Adams National Historical Park.

If you are a textile conservator with experience in wet cleaning and bleaching historic artifacts, you may be interested in our MTS Handout, Bleaching Textiles with Sodium Borohydride, available on the MTS website.

Morgan Carbone has a BA in Art History from Grinnell College. She recently finished her Master of Arts degree in Fashion and Textile Studies at the Fashion Institute of Technology.

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"But Bless Our Hands That Ebb Away"

2/16/2016

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In our previous blog post we talked about Lily Yeats and her role in the Arts and Crafts movement in Ireland. Today we will be discussing the various methods used to conserve and frame this historic embroidery, which will be on display at the McMullen Museum at Boston College from February 5 to June 6, 2016, as a part of the exhibit “The Arts and Crafts Movement: Making it Irish.”

When Museum Textile Services received the embroidery it was mounted onto an acidic board behind a gold paper mat inside an oak frame. The ground silk was wrapped around to the back side of the board and strung with orange linen thread. The mounted object was quite a bit smaller than its frame.

Embroidery by Lily Yeats and Brigid O'Brien, John J. Burns Library, Boston College.

In order to center the mounted embroidery into the frame, someone had taped it to the back of the gold window mat. MTS conservator Cara Jordan was able to be remove most of the tape mechanically with limited loss of silk. Small areas of tape that were more difficult to remove were humidified, allowing Cara eventually to lift the tape from the silk.

Tape on the reverse of the embroidery.

One edge being humidified,

The edge after tape was removed.

In order to remount the embroidery, the orange lacing had to be removed. The thread was cut in a few key spots, after which it was easily unlaced from the silk ground. The orange thread was too weak to reuse, so it was returned to the client. To our surprise, the back corners and an area of deterioration on the front had been glued to the board. Cara successfully released these adhered areas with acetone.

Cara remounted the embroidery onto a board of the same size as the original because the deep folds in the ground silk retained a memory of that shape. She lightly tensioned the embroidery around a new archival 8-ply board to which she had attached cotton poplin. While the embroidery was face up, it was hand stitched to the outer edge of the board using DMC cotton thread. It was then flipped over onto a padded surface and the folds of fabric were arranged on the back of the board before being hand stitched in place. The embroidery was then flipped face up again and Cara placed a network of hand stitching around the figures. Once the embroidery was properly mounted, the areas of damage were couched to the fabric-covered board with Gütermann Skala polyester thread.

Since the newly mounted embroidery was smaller than the frame, Cara needed to make a spacer system to properly position the embroidery. She cut a ring of corrugated polypropylene and covered the interior edge with archival frame tape. A new gold mat was cut for the piece to hide the sharp line between the faded front and the still-green sides. The mat was adhered to the polypropylene spacer with archival double-stick tape. The embroidery was then framed behind UV-filtering glass in its oak frame.

Mounted embroidery with the polypropylene spacer around it.

The unfaded bright green edge of the mounted embroidery.

The mounted embroidery with its mat adhered to the spacer.

We hope that you are as excited to see this embroidery at the McMullen as we are!

Morgan Carbone has a BA in Art History from Grinnell College. She recently finished her Master of Arts degree in Fashion and Textile Studies at the Fashion Institute of Technology.

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"The Proud and Careless Notes Live On"

2/1/2016

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In December, 2015, Museum Textile Services textile conservators Camille Myers Breeze and Morgan Carbone traveled to Boston College to condition report, vacuum and install a tapestry now on display at the Burns Library. While there, we looked at an embroidery done by Lily Yeats and Brigid O'Brien in 1915, which needed some conservation TLC. The newly-purchase embroidery will be on display in “The Arts and Crafts Movement: Making it Irish,” opening at the McMullen Museum at Boston College on February 6, 2016. The exhibit contains over one hundred artifacts from the Irish Arts and Crafts movement.

Embroidery by Lily Yeats and Brigid O'Brien, John J. Burns Library, Boston College.

The signatures “BO’BRIEN” and “Lily YEATS” are stitched at the bottom corners of the embroidery. Brigid O'Brien is credited as the designer and Lily Yeats was the maker. Yeats had been involved in the Arts and Crafts movement for many years by the time she made this embroidery. She studied embroidery under May Morris, daughter of William Morris, starting in 1888. In 1902 Lily, along with her sister Elizabeth and friend Evelyn Gleeson, founded the Dun Emer guild in Dublin. Dun Emer focused primarily on tapestry and carpet making. In 1908, the group separated and Lily and her sister founded Cuala Industries which ran a printing press and an embroidery workshop. The embroidery that MTS conserved was created in the Cuala embroidery workshop around 1915.

Framing the central figures in the embroidery are two banners reading, "The Proud and Careless Notes Live On But Bless Our Hands That Ebb Away." The text is from the W. B. Yeats poem The Players ask for a Blessing on the Psalteries and themselves from his collection of lyrical poems called In the Seven Woods. The poem was also Elizabeth Yeats' first hand-printed publication at Dun Emer, in 1903. W. B. Yeats was the brother of Lily and Elizabeth Yeats. Their other brother, Jack Butler Yeats, designed textiles for both Cuala Industries and the Dun Emer guild.

The Boston College embroidery has several condition issues, including fading due to light exposure, an area of unidirectional loss to the right of the figures, and gummy adhesive tape holding the back of the mounted textile to an acidic paper mat. Stay tuned for our follow-up blog on the textile conservation treatment by Cara Jordan.

Morgan Carbone has a BA in Art History from Grinnell College. She recently finished her Master of Arts degree in Fashion and Textile Studies at the Fashion Institute of Technology.

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Sampler Study Day at Buttonwoods Museum on 8/2/14

7/28/2014

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By Camille Myers Breeze

Museum Textile Services and the Buttonwoods Museum will host a Sampler Study Day at the 240 Water St, Haverhill, MA, on Saturday, August 2, 2014 from 10-12. To reserve a space please call the Buttonwoods Museum at 978-374-4626 or email jwilliams@buttonwoods.org. Drop-ins are welcome and will be accommodated as time permits on a first come, first served basis.

Image courtesy of the Buttonwoods Museum.

This event is for individuals who own antique needlework samplers and pictorial embroideries and would like to learn more about the condition, significance, and proper care of these textiles. Members of the public are invited to bring their samplers to the Buttonwoods Museum on Sampler Study Day for a professional evaluation. The fee to participate in this program is $30 per sampler.

Image courtesy of Museum Textile Services.

Camille Breeze will evaluate the condition of each sampler brought to the event and provide participants with a one-page conservation worksheet with a cost estimate for conservation. She will also discuss potential conservation issues and make recommendations for the appropriate mounting and framing of these heirlooms. Buttonwoods Museum staff will share information related to the age, decorative motifs, and overall style of each sampler. They will also provide resources for researching the history of a sampler's maker.

Image courtesy of Museum Textile Services.

Museum Textile Services staff will be help participants complete a short survey to include their samplers in a searchable online database administered by the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America. The goal of the NSCDA Sampler Survey is to inventory all extant samplers and pictorial embroideries in museums and private collections to promote the preservation and study of this important art form.

If your historical society or museum is interested in hosting a Sampler Study Day, please contact Camille Myers Breeze at info@museumtextiles.com or call 978-474-9200.

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Shakespeare's Tomb

10/21/2013

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by Josephine Johnson

Some images in the art world are made and forgotten, while others are repeated over and over again in many different mediums. A popular image of Fame Decorating Shakespeare's Tomb recently found its way into Museum Textile Services' studio in the form of embroidered and painted silk.

"Fame Decorating Shakespeare's Tomb" currently being conserved at MTS.

The embroidery depicts Fame as a woman decorating the tomb of the great William Shakespeare. The image was originally created by English painter Angelica Kauffmann in 1772. Kauffmann ranks among the first successful female European artists. The painting is a small metal roundel that may have been part of a large decorative scheme in a room. Her decorative images can be found all over furniture, porcelain, ceilings, walls, and as we've seen, embroideries.

"Fame Decorating Shakespeare's Tomb," painting by Angelica Kauffmann in 1772.

Kaufman's painting was made into an etching a decade later by the English printmaker Francesco Bartolozzi. Converting a painting into an etching was a common way to reproduce an image before photography was invented. The etching of the painting is probably what inspired the embroideries because an etching can circulate to a much bigger audience. Notice how the tomb in the embroidery matches the shape of the tomb in the etching, not the painting!

Etching of "Shakespeare's Tomb" created by Francesco Bartolozzi in 1782.

The embroideries follow the tradition in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries of needlepoint created by school girls, who would have had much easier access to the etching than to Kaufman's painting. With inspiration coming from the black and white etching, the embroiderer had more freedom for creativity when choosing colors.

In the slide show above you can see several other embroideries of Fame at Shakespeare's tomb. We love to see the work of a female painter celebrated over and over again throughout history!

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Project EXHIBIT!

12/3/2012

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by Camille Myers Breeze

For nearly a week, the Beard & Weil Galleries at Wheaton College in Norton, MA, was the scene of great collaboration and ingenuity as students of ARTH 335 Exhibition Design installed their Fall 2012 show, "100 Years 100 Objects." The exhibit showcases an object for each of the 100 years since Wheaton Female Seminary became Wheaton College.

"100 Years 100 Objects" will be on display December 3, 2012, through February 15, 2013.

Camille Breeze was hired to participate in two days of teaching and exhibit prep thanks to funding from the Art/Art History Department and the Evelyn Danzig Haas '39 Visiting Artist Program. After a short presentation about careers in conservation, Camille broke students into teams according to what remained to be done to install a pair of priceless textiles conserved by MTS.

Pair of Buddhist scrolls, conserved with assistance of Wheaton College interns Michelle Drummey and Gabrielle Ferreira in summer 2012, were already hanging when Camille arrived.

The first team underwent the final framing of a silk embroidery depicting "Hagar and Ishmael are Cast Out by Abraham" (Genesis Chapter XXI), by Eliza Wheaton Strong (1795-1834). This exquisite textile is very fragile but together the team cleaned the framing materials, placed the embroidery behind the custom mat, and backed the new frame with Marvelseal before hanging it in the gallery.

Upon Eliza Wheaton Strong's death, family members established Wheaton Female Seminary, which later became Wheaton College.

The remaining student teams addressed tasks related to the mounting of the c 1780 costume of the Duchesse de Choiseul, which had been conserved at Museum Textile Services in 2012. You can read about this project in intern Gabrielle Ferreira's first and second blogs.

Josephine Johnson '13.

The bust of the custom manikin was covered with show fabric by senior Josephine Johnson, who is planning for a career in conservation. The base for the manikin was assembled by a team including senior Morgan Bakerman, who is writing her thesis about the dress.

A third team addresses the skirt support, which originally was accomplished with rigid paniers. Students started with a replica of the skirt made by Cara Jordan from cotton muslin. Next, they machine sewed 3-inch twill tape in two rows across the skirt and threaded flexible polypropylene tubing through the channel. The tubing provided the shape of the paniers, and additional pieces of twill tape tied across the underside created the correct, flat silhouette.

Camille Breeze models the paniers after final touches were made by students.

During the final push on Saturday afternoon, the base was attached to the exhibit platform, the manikin bust was installed, the paniers were tied to the manikin, and finally the costume was dressed.

The costume of the Duchesse de Choiseul, c 1780.

Working with an academic institution like Wheaton College is one our favorite jobs at Museum Textile Services. Many thanks go out to Leah Niederstadt, Museum Studies Professor and Curator of the Permanent Collection, and Zeph Stickney, Archivist and Special Collections Curator, for asking Camille to help in this intense and rewarding project.

Leah Niederstadt and Zeph Stickney editing label copy written with the help of students.

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Familiar Finds in Needlecraft Magazine Part I

10/14/2012

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by Tegan Kehoe

Museum Textile Services recently acquired a number of issues of “Needlecraft: The Home Arts Magazine.” The magazine was published in the first half of the 20th century and these examples are from the 1920s and 30s. Several articles feature the same needlecraft techniques as those in some of the textiles that we have conserved!

Needlecraft The Home Arts Magazine, February 1934. Originally sold for 10 cents.

One example, from the February 1934 issue of Needlecraft, shows crewel embroidery, or crewelwork. Crewel, as the article explains, is distinguished from other styles of embroidery because it is done with wool yarn rather than silk or cotton thread. The result is a bold pattern that can be made with a wide variety of stitches. Most articles in Needlecraft do not include the patterns, which were sold separately, but they do include detailed descriptions of the process. This article describes patterns for a set of bookends, a cushion, and a handbag.

The article "Needlework Done with Crewels" appeared in the February 1934 issue of Needlecraft: The Home Arts Magazine, page 6.

One crewel embroidery object that Museum Textile Services has restored is an early 20th century chair. The embroidery was done by the owner's grandmother, who was no doubt exposed to magazine articles such as ours. The family still uses the chair, so the goal of conservation was to repair and stabilize the fabric for continued use.

The crewel embroidery on this early 20th century chair was done by the owners' grandmother.

Both the chair and the patterns from the magazine are reflective of Jacobean style, which hearkens back to 17th-century England but has stayed popular for crewel embroidery over the centuries. This style was especially popular during the early 20th-century revival of interest in colonial-era crafts. Jacobean embroidery features stylized plants and forest animals, such as the flowers, birds, and butterflies shown here.

Detail

More recently, the MTS study collection received a donation of crewel-embroidered curtains made by the mother of one of our clients. The client is downsizing her home and can only fit part of her mother's impressive needlework legacy. What makes this donation all the more meaningful is the discovery that the client graduated from Oberlin College in the same class as Camille's mother!

Stay tuned for more examples of textiles conserved at MTS that we learned more about from Needlecraft Magazine.

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Symbols in Silk

9/24/2012

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by Tegan Kehoe

In vibrant blues, greens, reds, and yellows, intricately embroidered motifs rich with symbolism cover this Chinese silk jifu from around 1900. It reflects a style introduced by the Manchu in the 1600s when they arrived in China, a style which continued to be influential throughout the Quing dynasty. The garment would have expressed the wearer’s Manchu ethnic background. The Manchu style includes elements that suggest the garment could be worn while riding a horse, such as the split front and the crescent shape at the ends of the sleeves, which protect the back of the hands.

Chinese jifu laid face-down on our worktables for surface cleaning of the back of the garment.

Of course, a fine robe such as this one would not actually have been worn for riding. A jifu is a semi-formal garment made to be worn at important government functions. The robe is made of a deep blue silk satin, and lined with a pale blue lightweight silk. The decoration is hand-embroidered silk and some metallic thread used for the bodies of the dragons. The choice of embroidery rather than woven designs is one of the clues that it is from around the turn of the 20th century. Another elegant detail is the several metal buttons that close the front of the robe.

The gold colored button stands out on a sea of blue silk.

This jifu is decorated with a number of Buddhist symbols and others from Chinese culture. For example, the peonies symbolize prosperity, and the small red creatures are stylized depictions of bats, symbolizing happiness. The association between bats and happiness has its origins in a pun, as the words for “bat” and “happiness” are pronounced identically in Mandarin Chinese.

This detail near the hem shows both peonies and bats, among other symbols.

The main symbols on the robe are dragons, appearing on the chest, torso, shoulders, and collar. In the Chinese tradition, dragons represent imperial authority, which is appropriate for a robe designed to be worn for government occasions.

This detail displays two dragons in the same forward-facing position on the robe's back and collar. Buddhist symbols, such as the vase below the dragon's tail, appear around the larger dragon, set apart by their different embroidery style.

The dragons take the center on a background that represents the visible universe, including rocks, clouds and water that cover most of the robe. The prism-like design at the corners represents the earth, surrounded by the universal ocean, represented in the robe’s border. The wearer of the robe completes the cosmology symbolized in the designs. The wearer’s body represents the axis aligning earth and heaven, while the neck opening in the garment represents the gate of heaven, and the wearer’s head represents the realm of the spiritual.

About a foot of the lower portion of the robe is embroidered with a border representing the universal ocean and the mountains of earth.

This jifu was given to the family of the current owner by the man who originally wore it. At Museum Textile Services, we are surface cleaning the robe and will be performing needed repairs, then creating a system for displaying the robe safely for years to come.

For more about the Conservation of Asian Art at Museum Textile Services, visit our website.

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A Proper Lady: Conservation of an English Embroidery

3/26/2012

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At the dawn of the 19th century, a young English woman by the name of Miss Grimshaw created a self portrait out of precious silk and watercolors. In the tradition of memorial embroideries of that time period, a piece of thin silk was first painted, then backed with a stiffer cotton, and finally embroidered through both layers.

Miss Grimshaw's portrait before conservation

The textile underwent quite a journey before arriving at Museum Textile Services. It was brought to America by Miss Grimshaw's son, D. Grimshaw, in 1838. This may be when the embroidery was placed in an ornate fluted frame over a wood board. Later, a paper mat with an oval cut-out was glued directly on top of the painted silk. The frame was again disturbed in the 20th century, as evidenced by some scotch tape holding the layers of board together.

Before conservation, the textile was acidified and brittle from age and contact with the wood board. The frame was weak, had been overpainted, and was losing its plaster.

The first step was to unframe and disassemble the embroidery to get to its core components. What we found inside was a layer of impossibly fragile silk being held together entirely by the stitching and paint.

During desassembly

Reverse of embroidery

The silk to which the cardboard mat was glued had long since separated from the center. This allowed the mat to be lifted off, leaving behind a rough oval of silk and silk embroidery threads. Cracks were present in the painted areas and some chunks of silk had detached, revealing the cotton backing fabric.

Damage to the painted silk along the right side

The proposed treatment was an aggressive one; lining the back of the silk was not possible because the embroidery stitching passes through both the silk and the cotton backing fabric. Instead, a sheer conservation fabric treated with an adhesive film would have to be placed on top of the embroidery to ensure the self portrait remained intact. Adhesive treatments of this kind are not reversible, so they are used only when other treatment options are exhausted.

Printed silk being inserted behind losses

Before the sheer overlay went on, losses in the silk were addressed using a unique procedure. A photograph of the intact foliage on the left side of the image was flipped horizontally in Photoshop to match the foliage on the right side of the picture. This reverse image was then printed on silk fabric using a color laser printer. (Print-on fabric is available at http://www.dharmatrading.com).

Damaged area after compensation and adhesive overlay, and before new mat was applied

The new silk was placed carefully underneath the shattered edges of the textile to camouflage losses. The adhesive overlay was then completed, locking the old and new layers together. The embroidery was hand stitched to a fabric-covered archival mat board.

Miss Grimshaw's self portrait after conservation

A computer-cut oval mat was provided by our frame supplier and a new fluted frame was found that matches the old one almost perfectly. The textile was framed and the frame was sealed with Marvelseal barrier film.

Now that this fragile piece of history has been stabilized and preserved, it lives on to be enjoyed by its owner, Miss Grimshaw's great-great-great-great-great granddaughter!

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Bleach Season at MTS

"But Bless Our Hands That Ebb Away"

"The Proud and Careless Notes Live On"

Sampler Study Day at Buttonwoods Museum on 8/2/14

Shakespeare's Tomb

Project EXHIBIT!

Familiar Finds in Needlecraft Magazine Part I

Symbols in Silk

A Proper Lady: Conservation of an English Embroidery

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