• About
  • Publications
  • Workshops & Conferences
  • Teaching
  • Copyright

Luba Nurse

~ interpretation & conservation of material culture

Luba Nurse

Monthly Archives: January 2012

Ethnobotany & Plants resources

31 Tuesday Jan 2012

Posted by ldn in conservation, economic botany, history of dress, identification, organic materials, plant fibres, plants, production

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

ethnobotany, plants

This post is being updated.

The Americas: 

  • Native American Ethnobotany database: http://herb.umd.umich.edu/
  • Pojar, Jim and Mackinnon, Andy. Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast: Washington, Oregon, British Columbia and Alaska. Vancouver: Lone Pine Publishing, 1994.
  • Ceiba pentandra (L.) Gaertn. kapok. , also known as ‘barriguda’ ? in South America as well as many other plants go under the same name? also Ceiba speciosa (cotton silk tree) – in the same family Malvaceae.
  • Use of palms in SA. 

Africa: 

  • Tropical Africa plants: http://database.prota.org/
  • Bark of Ficus glumosa Delile is used in central, eastern and southern Africa for tanning hides. In Kaokoland in Namibia it is said to be the most important tanning agent for leather, giving it a red colour favoured by the Himba people. The bark is also a source of a brick-red dye, popular in Mali (‘bogolan’ dyeing process), Sierra Leone (Koranko people) and Ghana for dyeing cloth and raffia. In some areas, e.g. Sudan, cloth is made from the bark.
  • Tukula powder – red powder that is finely ground from parts of the Camwood tree (Baphia nitida/African sandalwood) or from Pterocarpus soyauxii Taub. The heartwood is the source of the so-called true barwood dye. In Africa the dye is still used to colour red fabrics, fibres and clothes, including the tail-like ornaments made from raffia fibre in Cameroon and worn on the back by women of the Bulu people. In DR Congo, in the former kingdom of Kuba, at the confluence of the rivers Kasai and Sankuru, the dyes of the famous ‘Kasai velvets’ include Pterocarpus soyauxiireds with a more violet shade, obtained by combining the red dye with tannin-rich plants and a mordant of iron-rich mud. A pomade is made by mixing the red wood powder with oil and its use as a body cosmetic is widely applied in DR Congo (‘ngula’). The roots can be prepared and used in the same way as the heartwood and yield a dye of equal or better quality. Pulverized bark, mixed with palm oil, is also used as a cosmetic pomade.
  • Judith A. Carney and Richard Nicholas Rosomoff. In the Shadow of Slavery: Africa’s Botanical Legacy in the Atlantic World. Berkeley: U of California P, 2009. 296 pp.
  • Stanley B. Alpern 2008. Exotic Plants of Western Africa: Where They Came from and When, History of Africa, Vol. 35, (2008) (pp. 63-102).
  • Ceiba pentandra (L.) Gaertn. kapok. 

Oceania:

  • Alpine daisy, Celmisia (Maori tikumu):
  • Bark cloth: 
  • Inner bark from the lacebark tree (Lagetta Lagetto): 

http://www.kew.org/news/kew-blogs/economic-botany/to-jamaica-on-the-trail-of-the-lacebark-tree.htm

http://www.kew.org/science/ecbot/papers/prendergast2000lacebark.pdf

Brennan, E., and M. Nesbitt. 2010-11. Is Jamaican lace-bark (Lagetta lagetto) a sustainable material? Text: for the Study of Textile Art, Design and History 38:17-23.


Europe: 

General: 

  • Wood  http://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/research/centers/woodanatomy/
  • Kew bibliographic database:  http://kbd.kew.org/kbd/searchpage.do
  • U CA source for published papers: http://escholarship.org/uc/search?
  • A Chronicle of Economic Botany (very generic) 
  • Botanic Gardens Conservation International

Wet cleaning of textiles: embroidery sampler (wool foundation and wool embroidery).

30 Monday Jan 2012

Posted by ldn in textiles, wet cleaning

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

textiles, wet cleaning, wool

19th century embroidery sampler: wool foundation fabric, wool embroidery thread. Object from a private collection.

Surfactant: Dephypon LS45®.

before treatment. copyright by Luba D. Nurse.
after treatment. copyright Luba D Nurse.

1. Tested 3 surfactants, softened water and de water confirmed the instability of the blue dyes (present in blue and green shades). Had to find a solution to minimize the time and intensity of wet cleaning, details in conservation report. Continue reading →

Wet cleaning of textiles: failures and successes (silk and cotton).

30 Monday Jan 2012

Posted by ldn in textiles, wet cleaning

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

silk &cotton, textiles, wet cleaning

before treatment. copyright Luba D. Nurse.
before treatment. copyright Luba D. Nurse.
after treatment. copyright Luba D. Nurse.

Object: 18th century (?) silk lace and cotton ruffs (ruffles), part of men’s coat. The upper part is made of white cotton and is slightly gathered,  while the lower part is made of silk lace. Hand-stitched using cotton thread.

Condition: small tears in the lace, deformation due to wear, overall grey appearance, the dirt was embedded in the fabric.

The object had to be wet-cleaned twice, Continue reading →

Protected: Identification of plant materials: root of Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis).

29 Sunday Jan 2012

Posted by ldn in identification, microscopy, plant fibres, sitka spruce

≈ Enter your password to view comments.

Tags

identification, microscopy, plant fibres, sitka spruce

This content is password protected. To view it please enter your password below:

Russian volunteers in the Second Anglo-Boer War 1899-1902, Русские волонтеры в войне с бурами

29 Sunday Jan 2012

Posted by ldn in Africa, conservation, history of dress, RussoBritish history

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

conservation, history of dress, RussoBritish history

I am collecting material related to the presence of Russian volunteers in the South African war (Second Anglo-Boer War 1899-1902).

Русские волонтеры в войне с бурами Second Anglo-Boer War 1899-1902

На тему “Почему была так популярна песня про Трансвааль?” http://olhanninen.livejournal.com/288137.html

фото русских волонтеров

София Изединова – волонтер медсестра на стороне буров написала книгу по русски (Софья Изъединова Воспоминания сестры милосердия (Отрывки)
Зов Африки. Записки путешественников. Сост. и автор предисл. Н. Непомнящий. Ил. В. Неволина. – M., Редакция журнала «Вокруг света», 1992. – 352 с./Библиотека журнала «Вокруг света» в шести томах, т. 3), которая была переведа в 70х годах как “A few months with the Boers: The war reminiscences of a Russian nursing sister”
Евгений Максимов The Russian Boer general Lt Col Yevgeny Maximov – Евге́ний Я́ковлевич Макси́мов (1849—1904) — русский подполковник, командовал европейским легионом – портрет стр 48 в униформе своего собственного дизайна

http://ab-war.narod.ru/DAV-1.PDF
The Russians and the Anglo-Boer War by Apollon Davidson and Irina Filatova
Human and Rousseau/Combined Book Services, 287 pp, £17.99, June 1998, ISBN 0 7981 3804 1 б Review: http://www.lrb.co.uk/v20/n14/rw-johnson/rogues-paradise

http://wolfsonianfiulibrary.wordpress.com/2010/10/07/letters-diaries-view-books-photograph-albums-and-other-primary-sources-on-the-anglo-boer-war/

Identification of plant materials: cedar bark – yellow cedar (Callitropsis nootkatensis) and red cedar (Thuja plicata)

29 Sunday Jan 2012

Posted by ldn in cedar bark, identification, plant fibres

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

basketry, cedar bark, identification, plant fibres

Detail of a cedar bark cloak, Pacific Northwest coast, c. 1870s.
Halibut fishing line, 3 ply, made from split spruce root (Picea sitchensis), EBC 27781. Collected 1904, Pacific Northwest coast.
Detail of the same fishing line.

The inner bark of red and yellow cedar (Callitropsis nootkatensis & Thuja plicata) has been used for basketry and garment production by the people of the Pacific Northwest coast for centuries. Cedar bark baskets are sometimes mistaken for spruce root, this is often the case with the Tsimshian and Makah baskets misidentified in museum catalogues; in these baskets the foundation is made from the cedar bark and the weft is made from the spruce root. Cedar bark looks ‘spongy’ and feels soft and flexible while the spruce root looks and feels like wood.

Spruce root is usually debarked for basketry and lashings and its wood looks very similar to the stem; the heartwood is discarded, the sapwood is retained. Anatomically the sapwood is xylem while the bark is a secondary phloem. The phloem has 3 types of cells: sieve elements, parenchyma cells and sclerenchymatous cells. Sclerenchymatous cells usually measure 0.1-3 mm in length and arranged in tangential rows, used as fibers. Calcium oxalate crystals are present between these cells and may assist in plant identification.

Micrographs of cedar stem wood and bark can be found in M. Florian 1990, The Conservation of Artifacts Made from Plant Materials.

Micrographs of cedar stem wood can also be found in Heady et al. 2010, Identification of the woods used to make the Riley cabinet A historically-significant example of early Australian, convict-built, furniture, IAWA Journal, Vol. 31 (4), 385–397. This paper explains the technique of small sample removal from the objects of historic significance & discusses limitations and advantages of SEM and light microscopy in wood species identification.

Panshin, A. J. & C. de Zeeuw. 1980. Textbook of Wood Technology, McCraw-Hill.

 

Blog Stats

  • 32,200 hits

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 160 other followers

Recent Posts

  • Conservation treatment of two leather-covered boxes, associated with the silver vessels, made by the Nürnberg goldsmith Peter Kuster, c. 1550
  • EXPANDING THE ROLE OF MOUNTS IN THE PRESERVATION AND INTERPRETATION OF ARTEFACTS
  • 6th International Mountmakers Forum, London 2018
  • IIC Congress 2018 ‘Preventive Conservation’ Monday, Session 2: Lighting and Exhibition
  • Protected: Course materials for students: Preventive Conservation, Academy of Fine Arts and Design, Bratislava

Tags

Africa Authenticity in the revival of orthodox ecclesiastical embroidery in post-Soviet Russia basketry body armour brain tanning Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology collection carriage upholstery cedar bark Clothes Tell Stories ICOM Costume Committee Clothes Tell Stories review collaborative conservation conservation conservation of ethnographic museum collections Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands Dinah Eastop dogskin cloak D1924.80 dye analysis ethnobotany European dress Francis Lukezic Hannibal Technisches Museum Wien hide & skin history of dress ICON Ethnography Group identification IIC Gongress 2018 Preventive Conservation Kahu kurï (dog skin cloak) Kevlar leather Maori taonga microscopy modern materials mounting historic dress mount making mountmaking museum reopening organic materials para-aramid Patricia Wallace permanent exhibition plant fibres plants preventive conservation production RussoBritish history silk &cotton sitka spruce Spread or sacrifice: dilemma for lighting policies Teri Rofkar textile conservation textiles Tlingit spruce root basketry University of Applied Arts Vienna upholstery conservation Vienna Technical Museum Weltmuseum Wien wet cleaning wool Worldmuseum Vienna

Archives

  • September 2019
  • November 2018
  • September 2018
  • March 2018
  • January 2018
  • April 2017
  • September 2015
  • October 2014
  • November 2013
  • September 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • June 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012

Categories

Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.

Cancel
Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy