Welcome to the Textile Conservation Studio here on the Blickling Estate in Norfolk.
We're a national facility and we look after the textiles from all across our properties
and that ranges from tapestries to state beds and costume.
Textiles play a huge part in our lives, they tell really broad stories about trade, travel, taste,
so it's really important that we look after them.
Now I'm going to show you some of the things we've actually got in the studio currently
and one of the really exciting pieces is some samurai armour and you might think that there weren't very many textiles on a bit of armour
but actually there are so let's go and have a look at that.
This is the thigh guard, it basically ties around the waist and hangs down.
The armoured metal part is here but up here is a brocade with a strengthened leather.
I will be surface cleaning all those textile parts and netting them.
This piece here on the flap that secures around the thigh is particularly damaged and would need a silk crépeline adhesive treatment
to secure the threads before they can be netted
also humidification of the ties and also some infills where there are losses.
This is an arm guard, the brocade around the edges is in okay condition, there is some wear so it will need netting.
I'll apply a conservation net to protect the surface.
also one of the thumb-cords, which is a silk loop, has broken
so I'll be supporting that onto a tape and reconstructing that.
As you can see here I have some samples of conservation net. It's very fine net which we dye at the studio
and it would just be laid on the surface and stitched in place so it's basically a protective layer.
So you've seen the samurai armour, there are ties on there which are now very weak
and so Ellie here in the lab behind me is dyeing some cotton tape which will support those so that they don't degrade any faster.
First of all we have to very carefully measure out all our dyes
so that we can replicate all our recipes that we then keep as a log and as a reference to the project.
Unfortunately we don't use natural dyes that would have been used a lot in these objects
because we can't replicate colours and they're not colour-fast.
Today I'm using blue, black and yellow. I'm doing samples with the cotton tape today
and then we're going through the process of heat cycles and additives which will take two hours to do the whole cycle
which has to be monitored closely for good repeat of the colour.
The samurai project is not the only project we've got on in the studio.
We have 10 conservators here so we're able to do multiple projects at the same time
and one of them I thought you'd be really interested to see is one from Sizergh Castle
and it's a tapestry which Claire will tell you about.
This tapestry depicts the meeting of Antony and Cleopatra. It was woven about 1670-1680 in Antwerp.
When it initially comes to the studio it's photographed and documented.
This one had quite a few, almost 100 patches on the reverse from previous treatment.
The patches are normally removed and then it's sent to De Wit in Belgium to be wet cleaned.
It's then mounted onto a linen scrim which all of our stitching is then taken through to the linen as our support fabric.
It's predominantly about 80% wool and about 20% silk. A lot of the silk areas have been lost
so we're starting to do a brick stitch couching over the bare warps but we're replacing the silk with a stranded cotton
because they will last longer than the silk. We're also using dyed woollen weft to replace areas of loss
which is predominantly in the brown, and we're also replacing any slits.
As a normal guide, we say you should be able to see it at six inches but six foot away you wouldn't be able to tell.
Another project that we're working on at the moment is a state bed from Erddig
hung in embroidered Chinese silk, so Jane will tell you about the project.
Because the silk is so fragile, we are attaching an adhesive crépeline to it which we make in the studio
and then this crépeline is applied to the back of the curtain. It's then heat sealed
but where we've got the holes, we still have the sticky adhesive so we need to remove that
because dust particles can stick to that, so that is being removed with acetone and small squares of Melinex.
After this stage it will have a silk infill fabric which also acts as a support for the fragile silk
and that will be stitched in place and then it will have a net overlay so everything will be protected.
I hope you've enjoyed seeing some of the projects that we've got here
and the people who are working on them are very specialist.
All of us are trained in conservation and then probably a further postgraduate textile conservation or an internship.
Interestingly, apprenticeships in the 18th century would have been for seven years
and by the time we've done our undergraduate and our postgraduate and an internship it's about seven years as well.
So thank you so much for all your support to allow us to look after these treasures
and we hope you enjoy seeing the fruits of our labour back at the properties.