by Julia M Brennan and Anna Tendler Mulaney In these hurried days leading up to the holidays, we invite you to slow down and engage in a little stitching meditation. Listen. Pictured above is a late 19th c Meiji period Japanese uchikake, a ceremonial robe custom made for a bride. It is decorated with symbols from the […]
Gloriously Blessing the Baby…and Restoring the Glory to the Gown
Over the years we have cleaned, conserved, and repaired hundreds of historic christening dresses. Each one is different, short or long, tiered or sheer, embroidered or laced, pleated or smocked – each with its own family stories. Most have very yellowed ‘bib’ areas from sweet milky spittle, and often a host of rips and tears…..it […]
How a Textile Beckoned Me Home…
Early this year, I volunteered to assist with the conservation of some very special textiles, housed in temple collections in Chiang Mai. These intricate hangings were associated with Queen Consort Princess Darasamee and very much needed preservation. But it turns out they were far more complex than the visible embroidery threads for they were tied […]
Fit for a Queen: Remarkable Restoration, Exquisite Embroidery & Innovative Invisible Mannequins
In Celebration of Her Majesty’s 7th cycle Birthday 2016 July is always a busy month at the Queen Sirikit Museum of Textiles in Bangkok, as annual preparations take place for Her Majesty’s August birthday. This year was a big one—7 cycles of 12 is very auspicious and the museum pulled out all the stops. Two new […]
The ‘Lesage’ of Lao: Master Tiao Somsanith
I recently met Tiao Nithakhong Somsanith at the 5th International Conference on Lao Studies, in Bangkok. He transformed a drab classroom into a sacred space—golden embroideries of the Buddha, lace-like stencils of angels hovering like snowflakes on the windows overlooking the Chao Praya river, and an aura of the timelessness that imbues these ancient arts. Amongst […]
Puppet Masters: Conservation in Miniature
In the first partnership of its kind, I led the The Queen Sirikit Museum of Textiles in Bangkok and the Taiyuan Asian Puppet Museum in Taipei for a puppet textile conservation training workshop. In the lively one-week session, conservators Nuchada Piranprasankit and Yaowalak Bunnag, from the Queen Sirikit Museum of Textiles, and I trained staff […]
Let’s Hear it for the Boys #3: The All-American Installment
The final post in Julia’s three-part series dedicated to the gentleman. If you missed my first two posts on ‘man-centric’ textiles (or if you just loved them so much and you want to reread) – you can find the first post here, and the second post can be found here. Over the years, Caring for Textiles has […]
