Chalice Pall in need of Repair

This poor little Pall recently arrived looking in a bit of a sorry state, but so charming that it was well worth restoring. The lovely gold lace edging was falling off, and the silk was discoloured, and rather clumsily sewn down to the very grubby linen backing.

After taking it all apart, and removing the old linen and its tatty inner card, I managed to give the silk a gentle clean and re-mount it onto some white cotton. The gold trim was re stitched, using metallic thread, back onto the cotton to minimise the stress on the edges of the silk. I made a new linen pouch to hold some acid-free card. This was lightly stitched to the back of the cotton lining at the four corners, for ease of removal if it needs cleaning in the future.

It's now all ready for when it will next be used at Easter...just got to get through Lent first!

Out of the Fire, Into new Life!

One of our FSSP Priests had a habit of rescuing things that were to be burnt, because nobody wanted them. This deep purple velvet Chasuble was one of those things, which he saved the day before it was due to go on the bonfire!!! He asked if I could do anything with it, and the decision was made that the front and back central panels could be conserved, and mounted onto a new Chasuble, which is what I did.

(There's a burn hole in the velvet)

Our Parish said it would donate the cost of the work to him as a leaving present, so it has been a bit of a nagging thing with me, since he left several months ago. I had been rather snowed under with wedding dresses etc. in the summer, and as it was a time-consuming job to a) find a matching purple velvet,  which Father wanted to be a silk velvet, and b) sew said silk velvet which has a life of its own, and is not really suited to nice stiff roman vestments and  d) to locate a matching gold metallic trim, I eventually promised him I'd get it done by Advent.  It took a long time to find a silk velvet that matched well enough, (it's amazing how few silk velvets are available, and how many different purples are out there!) so I was pleased that the one I eventually plumped for was a really good match.

Phew, just managed to get it delivered this week...

The goldwork is beautiful, imagine burning that!

Father was very pleased with the result, little realising what a tricky job it was. Please don't anyone else order a silk velvet chasuble from me.....at least, not for a year or so 'till I recover.

Mystery Saint, Opus Anglicanum restoration Part 2

One of the most satisfying things about restoring something ancient, is when the original intention of the artist, which may have been made obscure through time due to disintegration of the original, or poor restoration, can be brought to the light again.

Here will be detailed the finding of the "Mystery" Saint between the two prophets on the front Orphrey of the Opus Anglicanum.
It was obvious that this figure was a Saint, since he had a halo. He held a tome in one hand, but the other raised arm had no visible hand, and seemed to be holding a large lozenge shaped object, which was impossible to identify as any saintly attribute.

Having studied many other images of Opus Anglicanum Saints juxtaposed with Prophets, it was concluded that it would be likely to be an Apostle, but which one?
Since the embroidery was heavily restored in these areas - as could be seen by the amount of newer threads coming through to the back of the later lining, as well as the poor quality of workmanship, especially in the face - the embroidered lines delineating the eyes nose and mouth were positioned very crudely - it was decided that the threads should be carefully removed, using tweezers, from the back.

The result was most surprising, and extremely gratifying to see..

Even though there was very little left of the original, the black outline threads were still in place, and the positioning of the features, beard and hair, could be easily worked out from them. What also could be seen was that he has a left hand holding the raised object, and from careful examination of where the original background threads had extended to, it could be seen that it was a short-handled curved blade of some sort.  This made the task of discovering who the saint was a lot easier.

Having researched typical attributes given to Apostles in the iconography of this period, it was deemed to be a flaying knife, and since St Bartholomew is frequently shown with this as his attribute,

St Bartholomew, from All Souls, Oxford.

the conclusion was that it is an embroidery of St Bartholomew.

With this in mind, the restoration was undertaken. The areas to be restored were quite extensive, so it was again deemed best to make a replica of the areas on hooped-up silk organza. Below, you can see the extent of the area which was to be covered, rather than sewing through the original canvas.

The restoration was completed in the same manner as described in the earlier blog posting Part One with the final result being like this.

Before

After

Top Prophet, Opus Anglicanum, details of Restoration (Part 1.)

The first task was to photograph, and assess the damaged areas, once the embroidery was carefully removed from the old chasuble.

The worst damage was to the front orphrey, the cause of which could be described, unscientifically, as "tummy rub" - but Father disclaimed having caused it, as he'd not really worn it that often! It is in the area which would most often rub against the altar edge whilst the Priest is offering the Sacrifice of the Mass.

Firstly, in the skirts, feet and floor of the top figure,

and secondly, on the middle figure, in the architecture above him, his face and upper body. The face had been very badly restored, and did not make much sense. It was also difficult to tell what he was holding in his left hand. This would have been an important symbol in trying to identify who he was, which shall be discussed later, in part 2.

The original mediaeval canvas had been backed with a linen at some time in the more recent past ,which made it easier to handle after removal from the chasuble -  (See photo below.)

When examining the back of the embroidery, one could see the extent of the restorations, since they came through both canvases - any threads that are seen on the back of the more recent lining canvas are obviously not original.

Looking at other Opus Anglicanum work, one can see that it is frequently Prophets and Apostles who are depicted. The Prophets very often wear a funny hat, and carry a scroll. The Saints will have a halo, and some identifying symbol. It seemed obvious that this orphrey had a Saint with his halo, sandwiched between two prophets - (It may well have been cut down from a larger piece of work at some time in the past, since the embroideries looked as though they could have carried on at either end.)

The decision was made to intervene in the original as minimally as possible, so some smaller areas were to have the poorer restorations removed, and some careful filling in of the gaps with embroidery threads, but larger areas would be covered in a new piece of embroidery carried out on two layers of fine silk organza, a very fine lightweight but stable fabric, which could then be lightly stitched in place on top of the damaged area. 

This shows the organza hooped, with a light chalk tracing of the area to be copied.

It was necessary to use as fine a fabric to embroider onto as possible, in order that the final piece would not end up too bulky.

When the loose threads, and the dark green under the top Prophet's feet, which were later additions, were carefully cut away, it could be seen that the floor had originally been made up of pale blue, and fawn coloured threads couched down with green crosses, so this was emulated in the copy.  The floor would also have extended up either side of the bottom of the gown, on either side of the figure, so one didn't mind extending over the restorations in that area. It is interesting that the original embroidery had worn away there, as had the restoration - it is evidently a vulnerable area, when being worn. In placing an independently embroidered piece over this part, it would be the first area to wear, and help minimise further damage to the original.

The embroidery unhooped alongside the original.

Below can be seen the free-standing piece of embroidery with the organza edges tucked round to the back, prior to mounting on the orphrey. The threads used were modern embroidery threads, mostly 3 strands, and an attempt was made to emulate the directionality of the original threads as much as possible, using a split-stitch technique, similar to how the original work was carried out. This is the first time such a technique had been carried out, so a certain amount of learning on the job took place!

The Prophet's face and hands had been badly restored, but the original features - eyes, nose and mouth were still intact, and under the restoration threads, the original positioning of the fingers and thumb could be detected. The restoration threads were removed with tweezers from the back of the lining canvas, so no original threads were lost, and some embroidery stitches were put in in a closer matching coloured thread to fill around the original features.

Before, with claw hand and ghost face!

After.

Finally, here is a comparison of the top Prophet area before and after restoration. The previous restorations included the very bright royal blues, but it was decided to go with more muted blues, closer in tone to the original. The work carried out will be fairly obvious to anyone who wants to distinguish between the original and the restoration, whilst at the same time it gives a nice finish to the orphrey, newly mounted onto a chasuble, which can now be used on special occasions, for its original intended purpose of offering Mass.

Before

After

Opus Anglicanum Given new lease of life

I was asked some time ago if I would be willing to undertake the restoration of a piece of Mediaeval embroidery; the Priest who asked me knew I had trained and worked as a paintings conservator in a pre-Mummy existence, and that I now did a lot of sewing. I had little experience of Opus Anglicanum, as that was what the embroidery turned out to be, but I do know a bit about handling ancient objects, having worked in several museum conservation departments in my time, so I said I'd take it on. I have to admit I was rather more excited by the fact that Father told me it had been kept by a recusant family and may well have been worn by St Edmund Campion - a real relic, to handle with care!
English Heritage had said they would work on it for the Priest, but he was told that it would then have to be displayed in a glass case, and not worn. Father wanted to be able to still wear it on very special occasions, and although I have knowledge of conservation ethics, I still have never been a great fan of the "get everything into a museum so that it won't rot" philosophy. There's plenty in museums (and it is a wonderful job conservation departments do, to stop them rotting!) but now and again, something that was created to give glory to God, should, if possible still be used for its intended purpose, so that was my take on what I eventually have done.

This is how the Chasuble arrived, rather worn pink silk, which actually looks a lot better in the photos than it did in real life!

Father chose the fabric he wanted, originally it was to be a large Gothic style chasuble, but once the fabric arrived we decided it might be a bit overpowering, and detract from the embroidered orphrey and cross, so ultimately it was decided to make a Roman style, based on a set he already had.

I am pleased with the way it has turned out. I now just have to make a conservation standard cover for it to be kept in safely whilst not in use. I shall post more about the restoration of the orphrey later.

Exaltation of the Holy Cross, Opus Anglicanum Style.

This was a unique once in a lifetime project whereby I was asked to restore orphreys of Opus Anglicanum embroidery work, and re-mount them onto a newly made chasuble. The project is nearing completion, so I am showing a preview of the work on this fitting feast day!

Liturgical Vestments

I have been working on a set of vestments for a Priest lately.  He acquired it from seminary - I think it was in the "to be chucked unless anyone wants to save it" bin. It is a bit old and worn, but the silk is quite lovely, and certainly wasn't beyond repair. He likes it as a light travelling set, too. There were two stoles for some reason, but no maniple or burse; so the request was made to supply the missing items, and repair the chasuble from any fabric which could be gleaned from the spare stole.

This shows the spare stole (folded over on itself) and a spare burse

from which I took a pattern for the new one

The silk was shredding in places, mostly at the shoulders where the previous users had frequently handled it presumably whilst trying to position it correctly

It was also bad on the front where it got frequently rubbed, in the same sections on either side of the central panel. Below shows the left side, with the metallic trim unpicked and turned back. The colours of the silks had not faded much as can be seen from the fabric under the trim not being much different.

This was a blessing, because it meant that all the silk of the spare stole, even under the trim, could be used for the repairs and new items, since there wasn't a great deal of it to work with!

After spending some time working out how best to divide up the stole, I eventually managed to cut out the silk as in the above photo, which shows the pieces (including interlining and lining) for the small maniple, and the piece which will be used for the burse-cover (which is constructed from the two widest parts of the stole.) This also left two longish matching strips for the chasuble repair - not seen here.

By gently extracting threads from the fraying edges of the worn silk on the chasuble that were to be covered by the new panels from the stole, I then had matching silk thread that could be used for the repairs.

The threads had to be gently teased out until ones that were

long enough to sew with could be found.

Here are the two side panels with sections of new silk inserted, and the edging tape sewn back down.

Here are some photos of the finished chasuble and maniple, there's still work to be done on the burse and the Chalice veil which needed re-lining too.

It was pleasing to be able to get fabric patches that matched

the line of the patterning right across the Chasuble.

The metal edging tape was a bit too wide to make

a cross for this space, so a small cross was

machine-embroidered instead. 

A piece of the tape was cut into a cross-shape for the top

of the maniple, and satin-stitched into place.

Sacred Heart Restoration Project

A friend of mine asked me if I could do anything with this old statue she'd found at the back of her elderly Mum's wardrobe. She had someone in mind to give it to, so I said I'd have "a go" at it.

It was pretty much the worse for wear, and had a few burn marks and splodges of glue where the head had been stuck back on in the past.

I had hoped that with some of my cleaning solvents I could have given it a good clean, but nothing could improve the discolouration of the paint and gilding, so I realised it would need a thorough re-painting.

Here are a few more before and after photos.

I'm sure with the next owner the statue will regain a patina from much loving prayers being said before it.