On a roll...

so I was lending a hand this afternoon moving around a few of the collections, and recording the locations...

Here's Katherine looking for a white roll amongst a bunch of white rolls??

In reality this is how we store large textiles, tapestries, wall hangings, carpets etc...

We take an acid free giant cardboard tube, cover this in acid free tissue and then roll the textile onto it, with an even and gentle tension and all interleaved with even more acid free tissue. The whole thing is then covered in Tyvec, which is an inert, acid free cross between paper and fabric, that is flexible, protects from dust and is also water repellent. The ends are then tied with acid free cotton tape and a label is tied on, with the accession number, and brief description of whats inside, the whole tube is suspended on a mandril so that pressure isn't exerted on any part of the object, so none of the fibres will be damaged... This method stops hard creases from forming, and also protects the colours and textures of the threads....

I like the element of mystery in this section of the store...

In other news, I went back to boxing tonight, haven't been for nearly two years... it was fun, but I do have weedy little arms like a T-Rex ... and I think bits of me are going to hurt tomorrow.... : )