Celmisia species : Maori ‘tikumu’

Pavel Mikhailov ‘Chief of the southern New Zealand with his wife’ 1821

At the recent (3 May) Artefacts of Encounter workshop a much better copy of the above image was shown by Julie Adams in her presentation ‘Bellingshausen collection of Maori cloaks in St. Petersburg’. AoE team’s research in Russia has located some incredible artefacts, cloaks included, I hope they publicise the results of this project soon.

The original drawing, entitled ‘Chief of the southern New Zealand with his wife’, is by Pavel Mikhailov (1786-1840) who took part in the expedition of Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen (Russian: Фаддей Фаддеевич Беллинсгаузен, Faddey Faddeyevich Bellinsgauzen), the so called First Russian Antarctic Expedition of 1819-1821.

The image caught my attention. This post is about the actual plant used to make the woman’s headdress depicted. Is it made from ‘tikumu’- mountain daisy, Celmisia, endemic

Reflectance Transformation Imaging : new blog by The National Archives

I have been looking for examples of application of Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI) to the study of basketry and it came in today: this blog by Dinah Eastop at The National Archives has an RTI image of a straw hat.

From my experience of working with basketry collections (mainly at the NMAI and EBC/Kew), basketry is often difficult to photograph, especially when the aim is to share the collection remotely with contemporary basketry makers who are interested in the details of construction (starting point, base, turning points, rim, sides, weave etc etc etc), and the basket’s original function.

The object’s condition can be used to interpret the life of the artefact prior to entering museum, with basketry this aspect is often overlooked. This is when a hat gets displayed as a bag upside down, or when a used and functional basket is misinterpreted as a newly made tourist souvenir.

Are there any applications of RTI to the study of evidence of wear and tear with basketry or garments?

I look forward to the updates on this project from The National Archives.

UPDATE 6/5/13: Part three of Dinah’s blog, focused on ‘plaiting’, demonstrates the applicability of RTI to the study of textile structures that are seemingly flat.

Dress forms with integrated hat mounts, custom made from Fosshape 600

installing clothing from the island of Fanø

Headdress trial.

One piece of Fosshape 600 was steamed over a polystyrene head cut to size/shape (thin Melinex as barrier).

Steaming of Fosshape 600 over polystyrene head.

Headdress mount form padded with polyester felt, covered with cotton jersey

trials of the inner cap (Fanø island) on the mount, mount edge is covered with black cotton. mount inserts into the neck of the body form.

clothing from the island of Læsø

mount form (Læsø), padded with polyester felt, covered with cotton jersey, edge and interior lined with black cotton

trial of the replica headscarf on the mount

installing clothing from the island of Læsø

installing clothing from Greenland

Polyurethane form cut to the correct size/shape was used as a mould.

Steaming of Fosshape over the mould

Fosshape body form was removed from the form by cutting along the back

Closing of the opening: hot glue or steam pieces of Fosshape over the opening.

Body forms made from Fosshape 600.

Custom made dress forms with integrated hat mounts made from Fosshape

Embroidered Electronic Textiles: Conductive Threads of Postmodernity

Together with KOBAKANT Collective, we are working on a paper for the upcoming North American Textile Conservation Conference ’Conserving Modernity: the Articulation of Innovation’.  Preprints will be published.

abstract:

 Conductive Threads of Postmodernity: Materiality and Engineered Agency of ‘The Crying Dress’

Luba Dovgan Nurse and KOBAKANT: Hannah Perner-Wilson and Mika Satomi

This paper focuses

Fish skin tanning and sewing workshop with Lotta Rahme: 20-24 May 2013, Sigtuna Sweden

Workshop announcement:

This is a great opportunity to learn the art of fish skin tanning and sewing from Lotta Rahme, Swedish artist, who works with organic and local materials.

Dates: 20-24

SYNTHESYS Advanced Training in Collections Management: Module 5: Curation of ethnobiology collections

LOCATION: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, UK

DURATION AND DATE: Lunch-to-lunch meeting, 24-25/06/2013

TRAINERS: Pat Griggs, Mark Nesbitt (Kew), Luba Dovgan Nurse (Denmark).

SHORT DESCRIPTION OF THE TRAINING: Many natural history museums contain artefacts and raw materials demonstrating use of natural materials by humans. These present special challenges to curators in storage, cataloguing, ethics and law, funding, and  deterioration and conservation. This short course tackles these questions through modern museum methods, and the experience of the Economic Botany Collection at the Royal Botanic Gardens of Kew (UK). The course is relevant to both plant and animal collections.

Book: http://synthesys.cybertaxonomy.africamuseum.be/page/module_5_curation_ethnobiology_collections

Guest blog: Francis Lukezic’s review of the ICON Ethnography Group Seminar, Nov 2011 ‘Conservation and Source Communities: Research, Objects and Treatments’

Demonstration of Tlingit basket making by Teri Rofkar.

A shorter version of the review appeared in: ICON News, January 2012, Issue 38, pp. 28-29.

Event/Programme: ICON Ethnography Group Seminar

Title: Conservation and Source Communities: Research, Objects and Treatments

Date: November 16^th, 2011

Venue: Pitt-Rivers Museum, Oxford

The Pitt-Rivers Museum in Oxford provided an outstanding venue for a one-day seminar centred on the interactions between indigenous communities and the conservation profession

Native American Basketry: new series of blogs from the NMAI: It’s All Connected—California Basketry, Cultural Context, and Museum Conservation

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Here is a long awaited series of blogs from the NMAI on the preservation of the Native American basketry:

http://blog.nmai.si.edu/main/2012/11/its-all-connected-1.html

http://blog.nmai.si.edu/main/2012/11/its-all-connected-2.html

http://blog.nmai.si.edu/main/2012/11/its-all-connected-3.html

Orthodox Ecclesiastical Embroidery: references and digital resources

 

Photographs by: Konstantinos Chatziantoniou.

forthcoming: Luba Dovgan Nurse, Mary M. Brooks and Dinah Eastop Authenticity in the revival of Orthodox ecclesiastical embroidery in post-Soviet Russia, accepted for  ‘The Real Thing?’: The Value of Authenticity and Replication for Investigation and Conservation’ conference at the University of Glasgow, Scotland, 6-7 December, 2012.

I just found this new great source of images of Orthodox ecclesiastical embroidery, it offers selection by date, origin, workshop, language of inscription, created by the St. Tikhon’s Orthodox University in St. Petersburg. 

In Russia ecclesiastical embroidery was undermined during the Soviet period, it revival began in the late 1980s and is ongoing. Traditionally it is done by women unlike that for example in England (Opus Anglicanum) or in Greece (Greek Orthodox Church).

REFERENCES

Conservation of Danish traditional dress from the islands of Fanø, Læsø and Amager: pleated garments

Detail of the apron (Amager)

Detail of the apron (Amager): silk and silk velvet ribbons at the lower edge

Detail of the skirt (Amager): interior of the lower edge is decorated with red wool treated with sizing

Skirt (Fanø) before conservation

Mannequin trial (Fanø): skirt construction

Skirt (Fanø) during reshaping

Skirt (Læsø) during reshaping

Fanø costume is being tried on a custom-made mannequin

Mannequin trial (Fanø): gathered apron not pleated points to the original location of the owner being Nordby (North of the island), this in turn determines the arrangement of the folds at the back of the headscarf. Mannequin + headmount, made from Fosshape 600.

Traditional way to store pleated skirts on display at the Maritime and Costume Museum, Fanø island

Display label reads: The heavy skirts were pleated, to retain the pleats skirts were tied and put inside a baking oven to use the residual heat.

Detail of the skirt on display

Pleated skirt and apron hung on the wall at the Hannes Hus museum, Fanø.

Recently I have been working with Danish traditional women’s clothing from the islands of Fanø, Læsø and Amager, see previous blog. Collected at the turn of the 20th century, they are part of the collection at the Koldinghus Museum and will be displayed at the ’1001 Treasures The Best from the Collection of the Museum and the Town Archives’ exhibition that opens on September 28th.