So now we've got the object horizontal again so we can start our treatment.
We've been thinking about all the different issues that we need to address and how
we might do that. One of the main issues is this stretcher that it's currently on
is quite problematic because there are spaces where you get this kind of
trampoline effect in between the wooden battens. So you can see when I press down
on this area there's nothing supporting that behind it.
So we would like to address that.
I think we also can see that it's quite soiled as well isn't?
I think that you know over the hundred years it's been in the museum dirt and
dust has settled on the surface giving it a bit of a grey sheen. I think it would
definitely benefit from some cleaning as well.
Yeah, and that's partly due to the stretcher again because when it's on display particles of dirt just get
sucked through the fabric, because there's nothing behind to stop that action.
I think we can address the issue of the stretcher mounting easily enough
by replacing the wooden stretcher with a solid support board. We need to make sure
that the board doesn't become too heavy, because we still need to think
about being able to move the object safely.
Another big issue of the previous repair, although it's doing a good job holding
the original object on at the moment, the stitches of the previous repair
are failing so the thread is very damaged it's very brittle and it's just
at risk of coming undone and letting the object eventually fall off.
So we really need to do something about that.
With the restoration materials beginning to fail
we need to have a look how easily we could replace these degrading
restoration materials with something new.
We need to make sure that whatever we
replace the restoration with is sympathetic to the object, allows it to be
displayed safely, and is hopefully more protected as well because there are some
areas where the embroidery has become abraded on the surface and that is
something we would like to stop from happening in the future.
The embroidery threads themselves are very degraded, aren't they? They're powdery and very
soft and quite easily broken so it would be nice to be able to think about
some way of providing some additional protection to the embroidery
but at the same time without obscuring it I think.
Another factor is that we've noticed in some areas there is in fact glue. So we really
need to investigate how easy is that to remove and how safe is it to remove.
And I think there's also, perhaps to a slightly lesser degree, but an ethical
issue about does the restoration materials form part of the history of
the object and should we treat it as now part of the object itself.
I think that's certainly a discussion to have with the curators.
you