Textile Conservation Workshop

The CTTC runs workshops every so often, for the education of the public, and also for the education of the children in their affiliated weaving communities. The textile conservation workshop they run once a year began yesterday. Instead of heading out to Chinchero and weaving, I sat in on the morning portion of the workshop to get a better idea of what their textile conservation methods are. They have a conservation expert on staff, and get grant money to preserve the ancient textiles in their collection and to hold these workshops. Of course, it was completely in Spanish, so until the actual work started I was a little lost... However, I feel I followed along well enough to get the idea. ^_^

You begin by creating a clean work space-- plastic to cover the tables and archival tissue paper to go under the weavings. Then we laid them all out (9 in total, the oldest being an Incan vest that needed alot of help, the majority of the rest being colonial in their period). Then you begin describing and documenting the textile in question with photos. You catalog what's in need of help, as detailed as possible. Then out comes the cleaning tools: you use a soft brush to get particulates off the textile, then lay green plastic mesh over it and vacuum it. Then you remove the tissue paper from under it and replace it with paper towels. Wet the textile (damp not soaking) and block it (stretch it so it's completely flat), then use the tweezers to align the threads that have come unwoven. If it's really dirty, at this step you might use baby shampoo to wash it gently or a combination of rubbing alcohol and ammonia to clean it. Once it's clean and flat and the threads are aligned, you lay paper towels and then a sheet of glass over the top and let it stand. Once it's dry you use a combination of starched broad cloth and mesh fabrics to repair and stabilize the textile, so that it will not be as fragile. When I left, the girls had cleaned and pressed all their textiles and were practicing stitching for when they were allowed to stabilize the fabrics.

The girls are going to be coming to the center every weekend this month for the workshops. I think next weekend, however, I'm going to weave.