{"id":17022,"date":"2017-06-11T20:19:40","date_gmt":"2017-06-12T01:19:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.conservators-converse.org\/?p=17022"},"modified":"2017-06-11T20:19:40","modified_gmt":"2017-06-12T01:19:40","slug":"45th-annual-meeting-textile-session-may-31-learning-from-treatments-that-did-not-go-as-planned-by-suzan-meijer-and-marjolein-koek","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/2017\/06\/11\/45th-annual-meeting-textile-session-may-31-learning-from-treatments-that-did-not-go-as-planned-by-suzan-meijer-and-marjolein-koek\/","title":{"rendered":"45th Annual Meeting – Textile Session, May 31, “Learning From Treatments That Did Not Go As Planned” by Suzan Meijer and Marjolein Koek"},"content":{"rendered":"

Involving a beautiful dress from the late 1860s and stunning before and after photos, Suzan Meijer\u2019s talk was a definite crowd pleaser. \u00a0Her talk focused on a silk moire dress in the collection of the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam. \u00a0(Now on my Top Ten list of places to visit, as it has over 10,000 textiles, the largest collection in the Netherlands!)\u00a0 Treatment of the dress was spurred on by the museum\u2019s launch of an expanded website that would allow digital access to select objects in the collection.\u00a0 This dress was selected because it is one of the few examples of the late 1860s pre-bustle period remaining unaltered.\u00a0 However, its selection meant that it would have to be dressed on a mannequin for extensive photography.\u00a0 The dress had been kept in hanging storage, covered, for decades, and Suzan spoke of the truly delicate condition it was in: the silk was split throughout the skirt, and shattered in many places across the bodice.\u00a0 \u00a0These damages far exceeded those outlined in the last condition report from 1950 (which may have been partially caused by the dress having been worn to a party at the museum in the early 20th<\/sup> century!). \u00a0Although wear and long-term hanging storage undoubtedly contributed to the poor condition of the dress, Suzan noted how the moire production process would also have contributed to the degradation of the silk.\u00a0 Moire is produced through calendering, which involves heat and a lot of pressure. \u00a0Tests showed that the silk may further have been weighted slightly, as small amounts of aluminum and iron were found in the fibers.\u00a0 But despite structural issues, the silk was phenomenally un-faded!\u00a0 The dye came back from the lab as 50% barberry and 49% unknown purple, red, and violet components.\u00a0 One could easily see why the museum was eager to have this dress appear on their website!<\/p>\n

However, to make this possible, it was determined that the skirt had to receive a full lining, and that the full lining would have to be adhesive since the silk was so delicate.\u00a0 Unusual for the period, the bodice and skirt of the dress were attached. \u00a0Suzan said they hoped to apply the adhesive lining without clipping any of the original stitches but that attempts soon proved this impossible, due to the tight cartridge pleating at the waist.\u00a0 Therefore, the decision was made to remove the skirt from the waistband so it could be laid flat.\u00a0 Evacon R, an EVA adhesive, was applied to silk crepeline.\u00a0 The adhesive coated silk crepeline was then attached to the interior of the skirt using heat reactivation, between 65-75 degrees Celsius.\u00a0 When this was completed and the skirt began to be re-pleated, it was noticed that some of the slits were popping.\u00a0 To fix this, nylon net was used as an overlay along the top few inches, sewn down to the underlying silk crepeline.<\/p>\n

As for the bodice, it lacked both boning and lining, which proved fortuitous when repairing the shattered silk.\u00a0 As with the skirt, adhesive-coated crepeline was used, but rather than a full lining, patches were applied.\u00a0 Again, net was used as an overlay and stitched through to the crepeline.\u00a0 However, unlike the skirt, small areas of the silk were missing, rather than just split.\u00a0 Toned Japanese paper was used to fill in these losses. \u00a0After the stunning photograph was taken, available here<\/a>, it was time for the dress to go back into storage.\u00a0 Obviously, hanging storage was no longer an option, so a large custom box was made in which the dress could be stored flat.\u00a0 A small \u201cshelf\u201d and tray was built into the box to accommodate the separate belt. \u00a0Suzan says that how surprising the condition of the dress was when treatment commenced led them to re-think their hanging storage.\u00a0 Covers were removed and the garments moved farther apart so that any downturn in their condition would be noticed immediately.\u00a0 I wish I had before photos to truly illustrate the amazing transformation this dress underwent.\u00a0 Good job, Suzan!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Involving a beautiful dress from the late 1860s and stunning before and after photos, Suzan Meijer\u2019s talk was a definite crowd pleaser. \u00a0Her talk focused on a silk moire dress in the collection of the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam. \u00a0(Now on my Top Ten list of places to visit, as it has over 10,000 textiles, the largest … Continue reading “45th Annual Meeting – Textile Session, May 31, “Learning From Treatments That Did Not Go As Planned” by Suzan Meijer and Marjolein Koek”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":207,"featured_media":16731,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,16,17,1],"tags":[79,1006],"class_list":["post-17022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-annual-meeting","category-specialty-sessions","category-textiles","category-uncategorized","tag-aics-45th-annual-meeting","tag-textiles-specialty-group"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/207"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17022"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17022\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/resources.culturalheritage.org\/conservators-converse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}