Jacqueline entertained us with a very informative and detailed talk about her work in textile conservation and restoration.
Moths present an obvious problem as do mice. Men apparently can cause major problems mainly with their lack of regard when dealing with textiles - from miner's banners to cricket caps!
The Miner's Banners as seen at the Durham Miners Gale represent a huge piece of our industrial heritage and recently Jaqueline and her team worked on restoring one particular banner back to its former glory. They had to remove lots of previous attempts of repairing the banner with sticky tape and glue using a wonder product called "goo gone".
The hours and hours spent painstakingly repairing and cleaning the banner resulted in a dramatic improvement in its appearance and it is now on display in such a way that this appearance can now be maintained.
Many similar banners can be seen on Pinterest and those of you who saw the recent Grayson Perry documentary will have seen his dramatic modern take on the banner.
Everything from ecclesiastical textiles to moth eaten cricket caps belonging to Sir Don Bradman and Ashley Mallet seem to have passed through the studio and have undergone hours and hours of work to either conserve or restore them using a variety of products and methods.
A selection of the commonly used products and aids used in the studio and also available to buy for personal use
