Heritage Keepers: The Perils in Textile Conservation

One of the most frequent professional afflictions in Conservators-Restorers is the onset of work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs). The conservation of textiles is recognizably vulnerable to these problems. However, the assessments of the ergonomic conditions for these workers are rare or even non-existing. The present study focuses on a group of conservators-restorers of textiles and relies on the use of a Nordic Questionnaire for musculoskeletal disorders coupled with a Quick Exposure Check for the task of consolidation on a horizontal table to determine the severity and exposure levels to WMSDs. All surveyed workers reported numbness, pain or discomfort in the last 12 months for the neck region, while 67% reported the same afflictions for the back, shoulders/arms and hands/wrist. In the same time period, half of the workers used pain relievers in order to maintain their professional activity. For the textile consolidation task, the neck and back areas showed high and very high levels of exposure, respectively, and the results place these workers at a high-risk for WMSDs due to cumulative stress. Mitigation strategies are proposed but these should be paired with professional counseling. Although preliminary, this study is the first of its kind to assess the ergonomic impact of the profession in Portugal and presents a methodology that can be used to perform similar evaluations in other workplaces and/or other specialties in the Conservation and Restoration sphere, both nationally and internationally.

Revealing the Origin: The Secrets of Textile Fragments Hidden Inside the 19th Century Chasuble from Dubrovnik

This paper presents the analysis carried out during the textile conservation–restoration process with the goal to reveal the secrets of textile fragments hidden inside the 19th century chasuble from Dubrovnik. The discovered textile fragments were investigated by modern instrumental methods and compared with the original textile from the 19th century set of liturgical vestments, which the chasuble belongs to. In addition, all other old repairs and treatments on the chasuble that had significant impact on the historic textile over time were investigated and assessed. The polymer type of the fibres was established by microscopic examination and infrared (ATR FT-IR) spectroscopy. A comparison of type of fibres and textile construction parameters, both from fragments and from the original textile, was carried out in order to determine their possible associations. Based on UV-Vis and HPLC identification of chemical composition of dyes in extracts from textile fibres, both from textile fragments, old repairs and authentic historic textile, it was possible to designate some common characteristics of dyes as important factors in determining its authenticity.

CONSERVATION ETHICS AND PRINCIBLES OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL TEXTILE

Textiles made of organic fibers, include anthropologic knowledge about lifestyle, art idea, mythology, daily life and religious traditions of the culture made them. These tangible examples of Cultural identity of the society important for transfer traditional knowledge from next generation. Textile Cultural artefacts responsibility and interest of conservation and restoration science professionals can find from archaeological excavations or gathering from urban areas and given to museums from collectors. Historic textiles are hard to found well preserved and hard to passing it onto the next generation compared to artefacts made from inorganic materials because of they made of organic materials. Every country on the earth has their own definition of Cultural Heritage and preservation laws. Under this diversity in the field of conservation and restoration science, it is necessary to establish standard definitions and use a common language at academic field likewise in every profession. Ethical codes and principles made for conservation of Cultural Heritage are a guide for conservation professionals. Politics of conservation practices change by technology development. In recent years, by analytical research, has been noticed that active conservation activities can damage the cultural heritage hence passive conservation activities like documentation and preservative conservation becomes priority. Descriptive scanning model based on screening of literature related to textile conservation was adopted for this paper. Keywords: Cultural heritage, archaeological textile, conservation, restoration, ethics

Applying Axial Symmetries to Historical Silk Fabrics: SILKNOW’s Virtual Loom

Symmetry is part of textile art in patterns and motifs that decorate fabrics, which are made by the interlacement of warp and wefts. Moreover, the 3D representation of fabrics have already been studied by some authors; however, they have not specifically dealt with preserving historical weaving techniques. In this paper, we present the SILKNOW’s Virtual Loom, a tool intended to document, preserve and reproduce silk historical weaving techniques from the 15th to the 19th centuries. We focus on the symmetry function and its contribution to art history, textile conservation, and modern design. We analyzed 2028 records from Garin 1820 datasets—a historical industry that still weaves with these techniques—and we reconstructed some historical designs that presented different types of defects. For those images (including fabrics and drawings) that had a symmetrical axis, we applied the symmetry functionality allowing to reconstruct missing parts. Thanks to these results, we were able to verify the usefulness of the Virtual Loom for conservation, analysis and new interpretative advantages, thanks to symmetry analysis applied to historical fabrics.

Assessing chelators’ efficiency in removing iron stains from textiles using X-ray fluorescence: Preliminary results

The removal of iron corrosion products is considered necessary in textile conservation and it is usually undertaken by the application of chelating agents. The efficacy of the various chelating agents is not always known and therefore, non-destructive analytical methods are often used to assess their performance. In the present work, Energy Dispersive X-ray fluorescence (EDXRF) spectroscopy was used to determine iron in textile samples before and after cleaning. It was shown that EDXRF provides a simple, rapid, non-destructive technique to determine the efficiency of iron removal after conservation treatment in textiles.