 Hello everybody and welcome to this afternoon's webinar. This is Mike Morneau from Learning Times. It's a pleasure to be here with you today. We're going to get started in just a moment. But before we do, I just want to let everyone know that if you have any issues of a technical nature with the webinar, please communicate with me in the chat window. As well, if you find that the audio drops, you may want to refresh your browser as well. That tends to be a quick fix. So without further delay, we've come ahead and started the recording for today's session. And I'd like to now introduce our host, Robin Bauer-Kilgo. Robin, whenever you're ready. Hi everyone and welcome to the Next In Our series of free Connecting to Collections Care webinars. Before we start, I would like to acknowledge this webinar is being moderated on the traditional lands of the Nicosupi and Seminole people and their ancestors. And I pay my respect to elders both task and present. To start off with, I'm going to give you a quick rundown of our program and myself a little bit. My name is Robin Bauer-Kilgo. I am the Community Coordinator for C2C Care. And you just heard Mike, who is our senior producer. As he said for learning time, as he said, if you have any technical issues or questions about the program, feel free to throw them in the chat box. You know, refreshing, as I've learned through all of these fun online platforms we're doing nowadays, refreshing is usually your friend. If something goes out of sync, please feel free to refresh your webinar and you should be popped right back in. A little bit about our program. This is our home on the web. It is www.connectingtocollection. On that website, you'll be able to find a treasure trove of things including past webinars, past information on all sorts of fun projects that we've had. So please feel free to go to that website whenever you have a chance. Included in that, we have a list of archives and resources. The archives for our program are vast. So please feel free to click on the archives button. Click into the years. You'll be able to see different webinars that we've done. So if you have some extra time, I know some of us are still furloughed or some of us are still kind of at home or dealing with things. So if you have some extra time, feel free to dive into those archives. We'll find webinars on pretty much any subject under the Museum Collection Sun. We also have a protected discussion area on our website. It is if you go to the Connecting to Collections Care website and go to Discussions, you'll be popped over to our community.culturalheritage.org. This is a moderated area, so if you post a question, we have a whole collection of fabulous people who have volunteered as monitors who can then answer your questions on competitive care, collections care, any of those fun items. And they can also reach out to experts within the conservators field to help you answer. So I would always recommend people, if you have a general question about collections care, please go to that website. We also have two homes on social media. One is on Facebook, facebook.com, slash c2ccommunity, and we're also on Twitter at c2ccare. We do announcements, we pass along stories, so feel free to join us on either of those platforms. We have a couple upcoming webinars already scheduled. This is part of our free webinar series. On August 26th, we have Care for Archaeological Collections or Care and Curation for Museums. We have a very exciting webinar for those of us who deal with archaeological collections, which are a slightly different beast than the normal historic or any kind of other collection you deal with. And on September 9th, we have a free webinar on the top three basics that will be coming out. So please look forward on our website. You can register for those webinars that are already up. Or keep an eye on social media as we come along and we fill out our calendar. A quick note about our platform. Folks are already working the chat box very well, so I'm very excited to see that. If you type within the chat box, make sure to hit send. I'll be keeping an eye on that chat box the entire time. So if you have a question for our speaker, feel free to throw it in there. I'll copy it and we'll make sure or try our best at least to get to it. Another area that's really great to look at is the links area on the website. Within there you'll find a resource list. Our presenter was nice enough to put together a copy of today's slide, which I know are always very excited for people to see. And the webinar evaluation. So at the end of this webinar, I'll do another shout out to that really quick. But you can go ahead and evaluate this actual webinar and the series itself. So without further ado, I'm going to go ahead and introduce our speaker for care of historic silk. Her name is Meredith Wilcox Levine. She is a textile conservator at the textile conservation workshop in South Salem, New York. She holds a master's science degree in historic costume of textiles in the University of Rhode Island Department of Textiles. With a focus in textile conservation, she is an associate member of the AIC in the Costume Society of America. Without further ado, I'm going to go ahead and hand the mic over to her. Thank you, Robin. Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining me today. As Robin said, my name is Meredith Wilcox Levine, and I am a textile conservator at the textile conservation workshop in South Salem, New York. I hope everyone is doing well wherever they are today. I'm going to speak to you today about silk and how to care for silk pieces in your collections. I will share with you some basic information about the history of silk, its production, and common examples of silk textiles and objects found in historic collections. I will present some illustrated examples of problems that are commonplace in historic silk textiles. I will then go on over ways to care for, safely store, and display silk textiles and when you should consult a conservator to help you. Parts of this information may already be familiar to you, or perhaps this is your first time hearing about historic silk. Either way, I hope that this lecture will be beneficial to you in your role as custodians of heritage. Silk, by its very nature, is a daunting medium to care for, even for trained conservators. But before I explain why, I'd like to know a little more about you and the types of institutions you represent. You can see a poll on your screen, and if you could please answer it so I know who I'm speaking to, that would be great. Can everybody see what I'm on my screen? This is Robin. Yeah, it looks like people are filling out the poll right now. I appear to have lost internet again, so I can't see. It's looking like quite a few folks are from museums. It looks like we have 28% or other smaller amount of people are from historical society and historical houses. Okay. I'm sorry, I'm trying to get my internet back. I don't know what happened. There we go. You're fine. And I should just be able to refresh this, right? Correct. Great. Okay. I see I have a lot of people from museums. That's great. I'm waiting for this to reconnect. Sorry, everyone, I'm having internet issues. Curious over kind of waiting, if people want to tell us the others. I am curious as to know what the others are. And let's just say that in the chat box. Wait for things to pop in. Fashion collection at a college. That's fascinating, Emily. We got some archives. A medical college. Really? Yeah. Just so you know, Meredith, someone said, no worries, I think we've all been there. That's from Jeannie. I would agree. Okay. I was going to say, Robin, I don't have any plans at the time of the next slide because I can keep talking while this... Beth, my pleasure. ...loads. Okay. So it was first cultivated and used in textiles in China. According to legend, it was discovered by a Chinese princess in 2700 BC who accidentally dropped a cocoon into her tea and discovered the long, thin strand of fiber. Cultivation of silkworms began in many hundreds of years. Silk fabrics and yarns were traded to other parts of Asia, the Middle East, and southeastern Europe as a luxury good. Only after 200 AD did other regions in Asia began to cultivate their own silkworms after they were smuggled out of China. Cultivation in the Middle East began around 400 AD and silk production began to spread through Europe in the late medieval period. However, the secret to unbroken filaments was not common knowledge, so Chinese silk remained to the highest quality during this time. The process of weaving silk fabric was generally the same through Asia and Europe until the advancements in loom technology during the Industrial Revolution. The punch card loom and the jackered loom of the late 18th century allowed for faster manufacturing of cloth. Silk is an animal fiber secreted by the silkworm and is composed of a protein called fibron. The long strands of protein fiber are triangular in shape, allowing the fiber to reflect light and creating the luster for which silk fabric is known. The silkworm, which is really a caterpillar, feeds exclusively mulberry leaves during its large marble stage and will then create a cocoon of extruded double stranded protein filaments which are held together with a gummy protein called sericin. The cocoons are usually created out of a single extremely long strand and the silkworms transform into a chrysalis and then a moth within the safety of the cocoon. Once the transformation is complete, the moth will eat its way through the cocoon and emerge. This process breaks the long filament strand. Therefore, when cultivating silk for textile production, the silkworms are killed using heat or steam before their metamorphosis is complete. The cocoon then can be soaked in hot water to soften the sericin and allow the fiber bundles to be unwound. Unbroken filaments pulled from cocoons can measure 3,000 feet in length. Once the long filaments are safely wound onto a reel, the sericin is removed using soap and water, a process called de-gumming, and the individual triangular filaments are separated. The sericin can be left in place and the resulting fiber is called raw silk. The silk filaments are then ready to be spun together to create consistently sized yarns, dyed, and woven into cloth or ply to create thicker yarns. The bombics mooring or domestic silk moths is still the most widely cultivated type as it creates a bright, bright filament. Other types of wild silk moths create colored filaments due to their different diures. Silk is prevalent in most collections in a variety of forms. Let's take a look at some examples, each of which was treated at the textile conservation workshop. Samplers were created by young girls in the 18th and 19th centuries as practice pieces for a variety of basic stitches that would be used later to produce clothing or other household textiles. Samplers in the United States were usually made with silk and wool threads on a cotton or linen ground. Silk needlework, such as these, combined meticulous needlework using fine silk threads and watercolor painting on a silk fabric. The designs were often based on published engravings, some of which were produced specifically for reproduction with a needle. A subset of silk embroideries are morning pictures. Created as memorials for family members at a time when the average life expectancy was low, morning pictures utilized the same skill set as other silk needleworks that featured a more somber personal subject matter. As you can see in the image on the left, while the women's dresses rot in silk embroidery floss, her body and face are painted as is the sky behind her. This required true mastery of both skill sets. While most quilts were created using cotton or recycled fabrics, intricately designed silk quilts were made primarily as decorative items. They were often used or they were often made using small discarded pieces left over from the construction of garments or reused pieces from larger textiles that were no longer set to be worn. Happy to advance the slides whenever you need it, Meredith. I think I got this one. These haphazard remnants became the basis for 19th century crazy quilts. Quilts include an extensive amount of embroidery both within the blocks and along the randomly shaped pieces. Robin, can you go to the next slide, please? While most flags and collections today are made of wool and cotton, some silk flags and banners can be found. They can be dyed painted with ink or pigment or embroidered. Due to their practical use, both flags are often in delicate condition. Next slide, please. Tapestries are woven primarily of women and wool but silk is often used to render intricate details and skies in natural scenes. The method of tapestry weaving leaves splits between the vertical warp yarns where colors change. Next slide, please. Furnishings such as curtains, bed hangings, pillows, rugs, a pulp stroke furniture and even wallpaper can be made from silk fabrics or yarns. Next slide, please. Ethnographic textiles like Ky-Tags, Tizani and embroidered Japanese kimonos feature some of the most intricate needlework. You may also find metallic yarns in such pieces. Some metallic yarns are yarn colors wrapped in thin strips of metal or thin strips of gilded paper. Next slide. So just to confirm, we are currently on this slide that says flags and it's a Japanese battle flag and a militia flag. Would you like to go beyond that? Oh, yes. Keep going. I'm sorry, I've said it a couple of times. I can't connect again for some reason. It will not let me connect to the Internet. Okay, so we've gone through... Okay, you can hold on to tapestries for a second. I can go back in the dialogue if we want. I'm going to just go back. Tapestries are woven primarily of linen and wool but self is often used to render intricate details and size in natural scenes. The method of tapestry weaving leaves splits between the vertical work yarns where colors change. Next slide, please, Robin. Okay, we're currently on furnishings. Okay. Furnishings such as curtains, bed hangings, pillows, rugs, a pulse of furniture, and even wallpaper can be made from silk fabrics or yarns. Next slide, please. Okay, you should be seeing ethnographic textiles like tie tags, doonies, and embroidered Asian textiles like this Japanese kimono feature some of the most intricate needlework. You may also find metallic yarns in such pieces. Some metallic yarns are yarn cores wrapped in thin strips of metal or thin strips of gilded paper. Next slide, please. Well, often can be made of silk and can vary in size from small christening dresses to large ornate gowns. Next slide, please. Accessories like hats, shoes, gloves, and stockings can be made from silk or be trimmed with silk decoration. Ribbons, flowers, and even silk laces are all possibilities. Some garments also feature decorations like glass beads, sequins, and metallic yarns. Next slide, please, Robin. This is not a complete list of textiles that you may encounter, but there are a few that you have a few of these in your collection. I'd like to ask you now to answer the poll that I have up so I can have an idea of what kind of textiles you have in your collection. I'm getting kicked off this thing. I don't know why. It happens sometimes. I'll remind all of our listeners that you can always hit refresh and it should load up and re-sync. Right now we're looking at poll number two. Let's see. A lot of quilts. Yes, a lot of quilts. That's not surprising. Costumes is actually the winner right now. Really? Okay. You like costumes. Costumes are good. I agree. Robin, I think I'm probably just going to ask you to keep advancing these because I'm not able to get this reliably. That's totally fine. Great. Okay. Let's move on to our next slide, please. Like all textile materials silk degrades over time. Due to its nature as a protein fiber, silk is weaker when wet than cellulose fibers or synthetic and is more susceptible to damage by bases such as strong alkali soaps or detergents as well as oxidizing agents like chlorine bleach. Even conservators are hesitant to treat any silk with water. Next slide, please. Dyes used for silk are not always color-fast and inadvertent exposure to moisture can cause irreversible bleeding. Perspiration in silk garments also causes staining over time and accelerates the breakdown of the fibers. Silk has a high photosensitivity similar to paper and degrades readily when exposed to sunlight. Next slide, please. Silk fibers absorb radiation and undergo a phytochemical reaction once the photon energy threshold is exceeded. White silk fabrics will dry out, crack and deform and even turn yellow with prolonged exposure. The same reaction causes dyed silks to fade. Next slide, please. This needle-point surety is a good example. You can see that the colors on the back of the piece are much more vibrant than those on the front which were exposed to light. Next slide, please. Silk fabric has historically been sold by weight rather than by cut-dartage. During production, the de-gumming process reduces the weight of the silk by 35% as the pherosin is a major component of the weight of raw silk. To make up for the lost weight and lost revenue, a technique of weighting silk during the dyeing process became common practice. In the latter half of the 19th century, many silks were over-weighted to maximize price, the detriment of the fabric itself. Next slide, please. During this time, silk fabric was treated with metallic salt, which were absorbed into the fibers both increasing the weight and body of the fabric. However, the longevity of the silk is greatly compromised by this process, and the fabric degrades much faster as a result. Enough low-quality weighted silks were made and sold that the Federal Trade Commission instated weighting regulations in 1938. Weighted silks could not be visually identified at the time of purchase, but their presence in collections is all too apparent today. Next slide, please. Deep weighted silks were used in abundance for garment linings and can be easily identified by a characteristic shattering pattern as seen here. Pieces of weighted silk can also be found in 19th century crazy quilts and exhibit the same type of damage. As you can see, the fabric loss could have been much more expensive had it not been for the embroidery within the block of this quilt. Next slide, please. Silk velvet is a particular issue as both the woven ground and the looped pile deteriorate. Loss of the pile can lead to exposed ground fabric which may or may not be the same in color. Breakage in the ground will result in fabric loss and in Iber case, embrittlement of the fibers causes breakage resulting in silk dust. Next slide, please. Pests that attack other protein fiber textiles such as wool and animal furs are not as attracted to silk as long as it is clean. Adult carpet beetles will feed on silk if a preferred food source is not readily available and moths will attack silk that is soiled. Quilts and rubbing moth larva eat protein in preparation for metamorphosis. Adult moths will lay their eggs on or in immediate proximity to such a food source creating the next generation of eaters. Insects are opportunistic for home and seeding ground wherever they find a stable food source. Beetle and moths will make holes in fabrics and the latter will also cause damage called grazing where the top layer or pile of fabric will be eaten away without creating a hole. The adult beetles and the larva of both mouse species will also leave droppings called frass and moths spin their cocoons on a textile hence the webbing. The greatest silk is the hardest problem we face as conservators. Should you encounter any of these issues in your collection, the utmost care should be taken in handling, cleaning, storage and display. Next slide please. Before we move on how to best care for your textile, I'd like to know more about who in your institution is responsible for such care. So please complete the poll. I would add too that if you are another on this poll, this is Robyn, feel free to throw what you do in the chat box too. I'm curious to see what other people call themselves. Being a lot of collections managers, you are my people, an outside conservator, collections manager, archivist, technician. Do we have any volunteers? Let's go to this one. I do. It's 6%. It's definitely one of the smaller ones, but it's there. I've seen some registrars. Again, my people. This is what Yasmin Lua, excuse me if I pronounce your name, you said collections managers, day-to-day storage and care, if there are issues in a conservator. That's been my experience as well. Sounds like the right way to go. That's interesting. We are a staff of two, and we're working on something else, which I have worked on at the places as well, so I understand that. If we're ready to move on, I think we can move to the next slide. If you are new to handling textiles, I recommend looking at several previous connecting to collections care webinars presented by Neri Ballard and Jane Hammond. Their presentations provide detailed examples and protocols for handling textiles of every sort. In terms of care, keeping objects as clean as possible is essential for longevity, appearance, and most importantly, to ensure that they are not attacked by pests. Careful inspection and vacuuming is the first and best method to keep pieces clean. The following vacuuming procedure is suggested as preventative maintenance for textiles that are in stable condition. Consultation with a professional conservator should be sought prior to the vacuuming of artifacts with surface embellishment or those that are in a deteriorated condition. Vacuuming removes surface dust and dirt, which can cause abrasion, soiling, and chemical damage. A regular program of vacuuming is recommended once every six months for textiles not in storage. Next slide, please. The textile should first be placed on a clean table and covered with fiberglass screening, the edges of which have been covered to protect the fabric from being torn. This screen has a border of twill tape along the edges, which was sewn onto it by machine. Use of the screening as a barrier will protect damage to loose or weak areas of the textile and keep loose bits from being set up into the vacuum. Some fabrics are strong enough to dispense with the need for a screen, but silk is not usually among these. I recommend using a screen any time you are working with a silk object. Using a low-section handheld vacuum with variable speed and the small round brush attachment, sometimes called the upholstery nozzle, gently pass the vacuum over the top of the textile. Always lift the screen and place it carefully, never dragging it across the textile. Move the nozzle of the vacuum in regular, gentle placement across the screen. Avoid lifting the textile throughout. Holding the screen in place is important so that it doesn't move across the textile as you vacuum. Once you are done with one side, you can repeat this process on the reverse, but only if the piece is strong enough to withstand turning. Next slide, please. Ideally, use a vacuum with variable suction and opening that can be open and closed so that the strongest suction can be used for the strongest textiles and weaker suction for more fragile ones. And when I vacuum silk, I pretty much use the lowest suction possible at all times. If your vacuum does not have variable suction, use your fingers to separate the nozzle from the screen for fragile textiles. This is not a difficult or uncertain procedure, but nevertheless must be done slowly and carefully so that the textile is not sucked up into the vacuum or scraped or gripped by the screen. Next slide, please. Micro attachments can also be used and are especially useful when cleaning three-dimensional pieces for the interiors of costumes. Micro attachments, such as this one, are readily available online, and most include openings at the base to create the necessary variable suction. They also usually include a variety of tools, but I suggest using the brush most. Next slide, please. Objects that do give it damage consistent with moms or beetles should undergo remediation. This is usually completed by freezing to kill all three life stages of insects, egg, larvae, and adult. An infected piece will require isolation and a period of at least two weeks in a freezer that can reach below negative four degrees Fahrenheit. Your typical freezer will not reach this temperature, so contacting a conservation professional is recommended. Other techniques, such as anoxic treatments, are also effective, but consultation with a professional is in order to safely execute such a treatment. Cleaning is essential at this point, too. Vacuum immediately in the surrounding area where you find an infestation. Using a vacuum that has a bag which you can discard and a filter which you can remove and watch. Look for ways insects may be getting into your building, windows, cracks in walls, under doors, et cetera, and make sure you check any new textile pieces you bring in for evidence of insects. You may see ads for various insect traps, but these are not recommended for controlling infestation only for detecting one. Next slide, please. As I explained before, risk is weaker when wet, so only the strongest pieces can be cleaned in this manner. The presence of bleeding dyes also makes such a treatment very risky. Aqueous cleaning of any silk object should only be completed by or in consultation with a conservator. You can find a conservator near you using a Find a Conservator tool on the American Institute for Conservation website. Next slide, please. Damage in silk fabrics requires consolidation. When fabrics are too delicate to be stitched directly, like the shattering silk in this crazy quilt, repairs involve a simple approach for consolidation. A soft, steered net is an almost invisible covering. Next slide, please. This is a simple alternative to replacing old worn squares with new fabrics an approach that would destroy the historical authenticity of a quilt. Nylon mainly net is available in a variety of colors, or silk bridal net can be used if you have light colors. Next slide, please. On the left, you can see a net overlay and process complete with the curved surgical needle we used to sew the fabric in place. On the right is a finished net patch where the edges have already been trimmed. Note that the net is almost invisible and so does not distract or drastically alter the look of the piece, allowing the original fabric to be both visible and secure. It is important to stitch through strong areas adjacent to the damaged fabric whenever attempting this type of repair. Next slide, please. Complex and heavily damaged objects should only be treated in consultation with a conservator to prevent further damage. A conservator can repair certain silk textiles using supportive linings and conservation grade adhesives. Unlike adhesives available to the public, those used by conservators are selected because they are reversible. Any other type of adhesive repair should be avoided. Next slide, please. Franged textiles are not immune to damage as original framing situations can pose a variety of problems. Many times, textiles are mounted on old wooden shingles and this is noted to contribute greatly to the overall brown and brittle character of the ground fabric as wood contains acids which migrate and damage fibers. Next slide, please. Here, the lemon canvas of the piece has been in contact with both the shingle and the original wooden frame, causing severe discoloration. Additionally, the metal tacks have oxidized causing holes in the fabric. Unsecured and embroidered textiles can sag within their frames, causing even more damage to the piece. Next slide, please. In many cases, glazing is in direct contact with the textile. This creates pressure on the piece and causes breakage, such as the silk and embroidery yarns on this sampler. If the frame's textile has been kept in an area without adequate climate control, moisture can create a mold problem within the frame and a hazy ghosting effect on the glass. Lastly, as original glazing has no ultraviolet protection, any frame's pieces exposed to sunlight will exhibit fading of the silk element. Next slide, please. Consultation with a conservator is beneficial if a framed piece exhibits any of these issues. Removing the textile from an acidic mount, cleaning and reframing using an archival mount, ultraviolet filtering glass or plexiglass and appropriate spacers to keep the glazing from coming into contact with the piece can greatly improve the lifespan of an object. Before we move on, I'd like to know how textiles are stored in your institution. Next slide, please. You should have a poll that asks you this question, and I'd love to hear your responses. Okay, a lot of boxes. Three percent boxes right now. Mm-hmm. Flat storage. See what else. Put other. Put it in the chat. I'm always curious. Kind of see. Rolled. Yeah, that makes sense. Mannequins. Boxes are overwhelmingly used for other things. Someone has, yeah, sad boxes, badly. I've been there. I feel you. When you say in situ, can you describe to me what that is? In situ would be that it's not actually stored basically stored on display at all times. Or stored in, in like a historical piece of furniture. It's looking like predominantly boxes in flat storage. Good. I like that. That's good. Yeah. But like people are saying, like I've been there too, where like it can be in a nice archival box, but then you open the box and it's like explosion of fabric. So it's not always... Yeah, that's true. Yeah, I'm looking at my own slides now, not on those things, so I can make sure that I'm going to need to go with the white spot. Yeah, you're doing great. Yeah. I'd say the internet has still made completely over here. Do you think we're ready to move on? Yeah, I think we can go ahead and shift on. Okay. Let's go to the next slide, please. As with any historic object, space and proper storage is essential for the longevity of that object. The strict control of temperature and humidity, use of acid-free materials, and proper packing techniques are the best way to preserve your silk textiles. Due to its absorbent nature and its weakness when wet, humidity affects silk readily, causing the fibers to swell. Controlling the temperature and relative humidity of your storage space is essential. Between 65 degrees and 75 degrees Fahrenheit, with a relative humidity of 50%, is regarded as the ideal storage condition. The zero fluctuations in humidity and temperature can cause dimensional changes in silk objects, which can be detrimental. Storage of any objects in an attic or basement is not recommended as the environmental changes in temperature and humidity are frequent and extreme. So much moisture can promote dye bleeding or mold growth, which can permanently damage a textile. Objects should also be stored off the floor, out of direct sunlight, and away from any radiators or heat sources. Next slide, please. Storage boxes should always be acid-free and unbuffered acid-free tissue is the best material for wrapping and padding out a piece. Unbuffered tissue, which is coated in calcium carbonate, should only be used for cellulosic textiles like cotton and linen. If you have both types in your supply, you can easily tell the difference between the two by touch. The unbuffered tissue is light and delicate, while the buffered tissue is a little heavier and has a chalkier feel to it. It is also recommended that whenever you box an object, you have labels on the outside with a picture of the textile so no unnecessary unboxing is needed. Next slide, please. For costumes and three-dimensional pieces, it is important that the box is large enough to accommodate the textile with the fewest folds possible. Any folds or heavy creases should be padded out with tissue to prevent sharp creases from developing as they will likely lead to breakage. Again, we also recommend a thorough photographic documentation of the piece before it is packed. This will allow visual analysis of a costume without having to unpack and handle it. Next slide, please. For many institutions, storage space is limited, while vertical storage of costumes is possible in many cases during silk pieces this way can be problematic. Only the strongest pieces should be stored in this manner, as gravity is no friend to damaged costumes of any type. The vertical storage is the only option for your costume, the piece should be hung on a special padded hanger made from acid-free materials. The padded hanger helps to distribute the weight of the garment over a wider area, relieving some of the stress in the shoulders. If the garment has a strong, accessible waistband on the inside, long loops of twill tape can be stitched to the front and back and loops over the hanger to support the weight of the skirt. Next slide, please. You can see here a twill tape, as I just described, has been stitched to the inside of this costume. But are very heavy, especially beaded gowns should never be hung, but they should be stored flat in a box. The use of breathable cotton garment covers or bags is also suggested. A cover will reduce both light exposure and protect the garment from dust. Next slide, please. Final poll of the day. I'd like to know how you currently display textiles in your institution. Again, please select all that apply. This is Robin again. This is always the fun question because, you know, you have storage, but when you have to display all these beautiful things. Yep. Someone just asked again if we are recording this webinar. We are, we promise, so it will be available on our website probably early next week. So right now it's looking like hanging, mannequin actually is winning most of all. Quite a few hanging. The others coming in are slant boards. Oh, good. Yeah, it's always nice to see that. You on furniture, 3% about 14 people said on the floor. Okay. I hope that's wrong. But mainly it looks like the winner would probably be mannequin. And after that it's flat. Okay. What it's looking like. Nope. Okay, great. We will get to mannequins shortly. Okay. Next slide, please. Great, the fire of textiles depends on a variety of factors. Just like storage, control of the temperature and relative humidity of the environment is important. Living light exposure is also essential, especially for silk, as degradation is cumulative and irreversible. Silk textiles should be placed in areas with no ultraviolet light exposure and low ambient light if possible. While 50 lux or foot candle lighting is considered standard for most textile display, recent studies indicate that even lower light levels are better for silk, as it is so reactive to light. Ultraviolet filtering glazing is recommended for framed pieces, and ultraviolet filtering window shades are commercially available to protect entire rooms. Next slide, please. Silk textiles should also not be in immediate contact with acidic materials such as raw wood. Textiles should never be placed in a location where they can be touched, walked on, or have other objects set upon them. It is also essential to limit display time of silk textiles. Even in ideal lighting conditions. Next slide, please. For large textiles that can be hung without being framed, such as quilts and tapestries, Velcro is the best hanging mechanism option. Unlike hanging loops or hooks, Velcro provides a continuous method of support along the hanging edge. This greatly reduces the likelihood of uneven stress or sagging while the textile is on display. The textile hangs freely from the top support and thus retains its characteristics of drape, flexibility, and inherent insulation. A piece of Velcro is stitched by machine to a stiff cotton webbing. This unit is then hand-stitched to the textile through all the layers using a matching cotton thread in a herringbone pattern. Next slide, please. Particularly heavy and delicate textiles can be supported with fabric headers or straps on the reverse to help distribute weight, such as the tapestry you see here. Textiles with open backs like tapestries can also benefit from dust covers or added lining to protect the piece from particulate matter and abrasion. Next slide, please. Draying of costumes can be tricky, particularly delicate silk garments. The safe display of a costume on a mannequin requires customization to ensure the proper fit of a garment. Research regarding the proper silhouette and fit of a piece is needed prior to customization. Next slide, please. Historic garments often call for a child-sized mannequin, which can then be built up to proper dimension. Mannequins with effortful covers, effortful cores, I should say, such as Dorfman Museum figures, can be customized to the appropriate period silhouette using high-waft and triphal batting and covered in a knit cotton fabric. These can be supported with the addition of net arms if arms are not available for your mannequin. The most essential result of any alteration is for the waist of the garment to fit snugly, but not tightly on the form. Many period garments also require additional underwears, such as a petticoat for a proper silhouette. For more detailed instructions regarding mannequins, I recommend viewing the webinar presented by Kathleen Kiefer and Petra Slinkard. Next slide, please. In the case of this velvet gown, the garment would be spread long-term on its custom mannequin. While the waist of the mannequin was altered to the correct size, the narrow waistband and significant weight of the skirt required additional support to keep it in place. Pieces of cotton scroll tape were sewn to the skirt waistband and then stitched to the mannequin, securing it to the mannequin. Next slide, please. Some smaller garments can be mounted flat and framed. In these cases, the garment is never truly flat, as that would create sharp creases that could break over time. Instead, a single pillow insert is created out of archival material to fit the shape of the garment and placed between the layers. This pillow also creates a supportive layer for the stitches used to attach the dress to the mount. And this is a good way to melt things like this flap or dress, as you can see. It is heavily beaded and could never be displayed on the mannequin. Basically, anyway. Next slide, please. In summary, we have gone over the basics of silk production and history. Some of the types of silk textiles you may have in your collection and the multitude of problems you may encounter. I have presented some ways to care for your silk textiles through basic treatments, base storage protocols, and options for display within your institution. We have gone over a lot of information today, and I hope you have found it useful. I do want to stress that if you have any questions regarding the well-being of a textile, you should consult with a trained conservator. We are here to help you in your mission of preservation. Thank you for joining me, and I am ready to answer any of your questions. And if we could go to the last slide. Thank you so much, Meredith. That was great. And I really like how you pointed out. I mean, as I kind of alluded to before, I am not a trained conservator. I am a registrar collections person. And some of the things that you pointed out, I would feel very comfortable doing. Others, I would not. So I would always try to contact some of you guys who are trained in that area before I would do anything that I think we all know do no harm. So if we feel like we are harming the object itself, we will kind of put breaks on what we are doing and talk to someone. Particularly important with silk, because silk is the most delicate of pretty much anything you can find in terms of textile. Totally. And I will also say because of your pictures, some of the most beautiful. Like just looking at the pictures in your presentation or just kind of fascinating to see everything. So we are looking at, you know, letting questions kind of roll in a little slowly. While we are doing, waiting for that though, there was a pretty interesting conversation on thoughts on using pantyhose for screens. So you know when you are vacuuming, some people said the netting, you can get away with using pantyhose. And some people said, well, you still have to be a little careful when using pantyhose. So what were kind of your thoughts? Yeah. Well pantyhose can be used if they are put directly over the nozzle of the vacuum. But in that case, I would still recommend having your fingers between it and the object to make sure that you are not getting full suction on the object. That is what the brush is for. The impulsory brush, it not only agitates, I guess you could say things, but it also creates a little bit of suction dispersal because it is not a flat piece directly on an object. So yes, you can get away with using pantyhose, but it is important to have low suction still and to keep your fingers between to make sure you are not getting full suction on an object. Well and one thing too, and this might seem like an easy thing, but you never want the nozzle hose to touch the object itself, correct? Correct. That is absolutely true. And the benefit also to having the screen is that it will hold anything down. So if you have say a loose piece of silk that you didn't know was there, if you weren't using the screen, even with the pantyhose, it would lift that completely free of the object and you could either lose it or cause more damage. So having that barrier between the object and the vacuum that is completely separate from the vacuum is important to keep any loose pieces in place with the object. Right, exactly. There's a really good discussion in the chat about some rather than nilfisk, which is the industry standard when it comes to vacuum cleaners. Game cleaners, a couple people mentioned Miel, M-I-E-L-E. Yes, that's a German company. I added a couple that I found recently to the resources list that say that they do have the variable speed, but in each of those cases you still have to make sure that even the lowest speed isn't too much. That's where I really like to use microattachments. A lot of times, unless it's an absolutely enormous textile, like a tapestry or something like that, I will go through and vacuum an entire piece using the microattachments simply because they allow more control of the suction than even a larger brush would because on the bottom of the microattachment piece that you connect to your vacuum, it has a little valve so you can control open and close just how much suction is happening. Right, exactly. Someone just asked about that resource list. Everyone can actually access it. If you go to the links section of the online platform and click on resource list, it should pull up the PDF document. I'll also have it up on the website by early next week. You can go along with the connection to the recording. And we can also... Someone asked about the chat. We can archive that as well. I'll try to save it. We can post it up to the public area as well. Someone asked about storage, which I found interesting. They are saying they're currently filing uniforms in large Ziploc bags open in plastic bins. They don't really have any choice through little space. I live in Florida, so I find Ziploc bags wildly evil. When you're dealing with lots of things, I think the key thing that I just zeroed in on is she says they're open. But again, in other locations you might be good, but what are your thoughts on that? With the idea that sometimes we have to use what we have to use. We can't always get the nicest things. Yeah, so open is better than closed, definitely, because you don't want to create a microclimate that could... If there was any residual moisture in there and then if you had a temperature flux you could get mold growth because the humidity in there will change. I like to stay away from plastic as much as possible, especially with silk, because a lot of times you have the problem of static. And silk can be a very staticky fabric and if you have any breaking fibers, they will stick to that bag immediately and you will lose pieces. So if you have pieces in relatively good condition, that's one thing. There's also a lot of handling that would be required getting pieces in and out of the mouth of the bag, which could be problematic. So I mean, certainly not an ideal solution, but if that's what you have, then that's kind of what you have. That's why... I would certainly, if you're going to do that, try and wrap the piece in tissue before it goes into the bag so you don't have the textile immediately in contact with the static of the bag. They clarify that they're in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, so right away you're better than Florida, so that's good. And they have to be able to page through to find certain ones for display. They're not silk, but they're cotton and cotton poly. So that's better. Yeah, that's better. I would still recommend having tissue around anything, but that's definitely a better situation than having a silk in a plastic. Yeah, exactly. Someone else is asking about emergency response. How would you handle, if you have to deal with a flooding incident or something like that and you come across silk items, what are your first couple steps for that? So there are different minds on this, but if you come across a silk textile that is still wet, it's still kind of... There are mixed opinions on whether you should dry it and whether you should freeze it. I personally think that freezing a wet silk textile is not the right option because it is so delicate and the crystalline nature of the fibers does not react well to water and then having that freeze will just make it worse. So really the way to do it is to take as carefully as you can, take that silk garment or piece and dry it gently with cotton tallying as much as you can, and then leave it flat to dry, and then consult with a conservator after that. I would not put a water-logged silk textile in a freezer. Pretty much, I mean, even if you were to do that, if there's any dye bleed, it may be reversible, but most likely it's not. But just for the preservation of the actual structure of the silk, you want to get it dry, gently, but quickly. Yeah, I mean, that's been my experience dealing with flooding and hurricane with anything that could, like the ink can run, and I'm talking silk, but also just like anything like that, is to try to get it flat as soon as you can and to try to deal with that running aspect and what you said about the blotting. And someone in the chat said, say, freezing can buy you time when you have a large number of wet textiles. I would agree with that statement generally, but I think it's a good way to get the trucks to get to you quickly, you know? So it's kind of always the fun thing with dealing with an emergency situation, trying to figure out what's the best. How else do people have? I was wondering if you could speak a little bit about just rolling silk items and textiles. I know generally speaking, you know, like large items, usually people will say roll them, but kind of like what are your thoughts on just rolling them and just where does the nap go? All that kind of fun. Okay, as far as the nap, the nap should pretty much always be on the outside because you don't want to crush it as you're rolling. Whenever we roll, we always have a tissue interlining in what we're rolling. Actually, sometimes we'll even use, especially for particularly delicate pieces, instead of tissue, we'll use pieces of Tyvek and make sure that you have the slick side of the Tyvek towards the textile so you don't have any catching happening because the reverse side of the Tyvek is a little bit softer and a little bit stickier. Rolled is usually pretty good. You just have to make sure that, especially with flat pieces, that you're not creating any more creases as you're rolling. A lot of times with large, particularly flat pieces, we'll also do an additional layer of thin batting if we do it necessary to keep it kind of padded and to make sure that no creases are being put in. Rolling is a very complicated procedure, to be sure. And I would say that unless you're working with the smallest piece, you want to have at least two people rolling so you can make sure that you have pretty even hotness and everything going through on your roll. And then covering that roll with a layer of Tyvek and tying off the ends or stuffing the ends of the Tyvek into the rolls are good. And I would choose mass and free roll. Perfect. This is kind of more of someone's asking for advice. They say we have a large embroidered silk banner with a metal fringe. It is in poor condition, with flakes of silk falling everywhere we try to handle it. The large flat box with unbuffered tissues be the best solution for storage. If you have a box that is big enough for it to be flat, then yes. Certainly things that are trying to roll anything like that, even if it was in good condition, with that fringe is going to make it really, really difficult. So if you have pieces that have a lot of different dimension to it, flat is definitely your best bet. But you also want to make sure that it's big enough to be flat and not have to be folded if it's in that delicate condition. It feels like in most cases, and I hate to make generalized statements like this, flat storage is kind of my go-to way of storing those things. Just generally speaking, just because the hanging storage, it feels like it's a little bit more involved for a lot of items. What do you think? Is that kind of too generalized a statement? I mean, flat is the most supportive way that you can have, because you have basically all of the textile and not fighting gravity, as it were. And I know that flat is hard for a lot of people because of space. But I mean, you can do flat storage within a box, obviously, or in file drawers. But overall, for basically any textile, flat is the best way to go. And with silk in particular, that is true. This is interesting, especially in light of how many of us are struggling to find PPE right now, but are there any health hazards associated with weighted silk? Should any precautions be taken with handling? Whenever I... I haven't seen anything that talks specifically about... I mean, there is a toxicity to it, certainly to a certain extent. A lot of it has already broken down. But as far as handling weighted silk, just because of the dust, a lot of times that happens, I usually wear a mask anyway because the silk dust is not great. It makes your eyes, water, makes your knees. Never a good thing. And I will tend to also wear gloves whenever I can if I'm working, if I'm handling a lot of weighted silk. I know that wearing gloves can be hard when you're doing actual repairs, but as long as you wash your hands a lot, keep your hands clean as possible and do a minimizing of touching of it, you should be okay. But I know PPE is hard to find, but whenever I'm dealing with a particularly dirty or dusty silk thing, I usually wear a mask. Yeah, and I would... It doesn't even have to be an N95. I know that there are a lot of handmade cotton masks that are going around out there. Even something like that should be fine just to keep the particulates out of your nose. That is exactly what I was going to say. I think in Perfect World, we want the best masks that we can wear, but I think in today's kind of Graham Shackle universe we're living in, having that cotton mask over your face, which you should have anyway, you can have on and you should be okay. Or at least helpful in that line. Someone asked, can they talk a bit about best management for a manuscript on silk? They have a Chinese Imperial manuscript written with ink on silk. Hmm. Okay. Well, that's certainly something that my colleague here, Mary Taldani, has done a lot of work with paintings and ink on silk. Most of the time, again, keeping it flat is possible. I mean, I don't know if it's a scroll that is actually scrolled on a piece of wood or not. I mean, if it's meant to be rolled on a piece of wood, usually keeping it, unless it is breaking, keeping it on its original mount is certainly preferable for keeping it whole. But really, storing acid-free materials is important. And then probably, I mean, if there are any structural issues, you probably want to consult a conservator. The ink is also not necessarily die-fast, so keeping it away from moisture is important as well because that ink could also run if it gets wet. Yeah, that's something that anytime I just, I always get generally nervous. Pretty much of anything that if it gets wet, the dye's going to run. Like, I just have this initial fear that always dye's going to run. So I can understand that. So someone's asking about mannequins. They're saying my director instructed me to use an old adjustable seamstress form as mannequins. Is this not suggested when it comes to mannequins? If you can pad it out to the dimensions that you want, you can use it. I know that a lot of times, I mean, most of those mannequins are not created with acid-free materials. A lot of times they have wooden cores and the fabric on the outside is not usually clean. I've seen some mannequins that actually have wool batting over the inside of the form underneath the fabric. So there's always a potential for insects. I mean, they can be used, but definitely so patting them out to the proper dimensions through your piece and making sure that they're covered at least in a barrier fabric between the original fabric and your actual textile is important. One of the things that we use usually is sock-a-nets, which is a knit fabric that comes in a tube that you can put over the top. It's kind of hard to find in large circumferences. It's really easy to find in the three-inch circumferences they use for a lot of medical things, but if you can find the larger diameter ones, it's pretty stretchy, and it is a nice cover to put over mannequins. There's a real interesting discussion happening right now in the chat, people talking about freezing silk and just textile general. I know it's been my experience that you usually need to find... It's hard to just use a run-of-the-mill freezer or a chest freezer. You can buy it. Yours isn't around as much anymore, but wherever you buy your refrigerators from, do you have any thoughts on that? Because I always avoid... When you're walking into... Most of our listeners are small and mid-sized, and sometimes, especially with our boards, we'll talk about freezing, and they'll be like, we'll just go to wherever and buy a freezer, and you're kind of like, that's not really the freezer you need. Can you give a little bit more thought or discussion towards that? Yeah. Yeah, the negative four-degree... And I see that... I'm online again, or I'll watch for a second, that Margaret Guss-Munian has posted a link that is very helpful. That negative four-degree Fahrenheit temperature is pretty much... You have to get down to that in order for it to be effective. Otherwise, a temperature that's below freezing but above that is just going to put any insect into dormancy. It's going to make them weak. But we'll wake up again once they get warm again. So having a prolonged time at that specific temperature or lower is essential to actually kill anything. So... And yeah, it's really hard to find... Your typical freezer in your refrigerator certainly isn't going to get that low. That freezer is very rarely get that low. I saw at one point in time someone suggested getting an electrician to come and fuss with your chef freezer to see if it can make it go lower. I don't know what kind of fall face freezers have nowadays, whether you can do that or not. So yeah, freezing is becoming less and less something that you can just do at a regular freezer, unfortunately. So contacting a conservator who has access or a company that has access to large industrial freezers that will get to that temperature is important. Yeah, I think that's the key thing that you just said was an industrial-sized freezer, not like a run-of-the-mill. Literally, when you were talking about juicing it up, I was thinking like Doc Brown and Back to the Future and like something with like dry air. Yeah. Back as you did it. The really important thing about if you are going to freeze something, especially if you have access to a freezer that does get down to that temperature, even if it's an industrial one and you're working with a company that doesn't necessarily know about textiles, making sure that you wrap the objects that you are going to freeze in tissue and then bagging it twice. So you have to put it in like a plastic bag, evacuate all as much air out as you can, then put it in another bag and do the same thing because that double bagging is going to be the biggest thing that will keep any moisture and any condensation building up inside the first bag around your object which can cause moisture damage. So if you are able to freeze something, you've got to make sure that it's wrapped in tissue and double bagged before it goes in a freezer. Yeah, that's a really, really good point. I know the first time I ever dealt with freezing stuff I had a trained conservator by my side the entire time because I just wanted to make sure that we were doing it correctly, so it was a great thing. Someone says, we have some early plastic buttons on silk costumes in the 1880s and 90s. Should we put a Mylar barrier between the buttons on silk? I mean, certainly a barrier is a good idea. The problem with Mylar is it tends to be sharp, so something else that you could even... you could use tissue, you could cut a small piece of tieback. Something that would, you know, definitely act as a barrier between but it does not have sharp edges is important, so. Okay, and I'll do one last question. Our council was gifted with resist dyed kimono by Japanese Girl Guides. Overall, good shape, but some shattering in small parts of the design all on the same color. Am I correct in assuming that the dye for the color is degrading those areas? Yeah, that's usually true. I mean, a lot of times we'll see both in silk and in other textiles, and anything that was dyed with an iron mordant usually will break down faster. It's a problem we call it iron gall, so it's the breakdown of the actual iron into a different ion that is causing the breakdown. Whether that is the case on this one or not, I'm not sure, but if it's all in a specific color, I would say, yes, the dye is probably responsible. Great, thank you. Well, I'm going to go ahead and wrap up today. I want to remind everyone that right now you can grab the resource list, the slides, and the webinar evaluation. Please fill that out over on the left-hand side of the screen. Do that at your earliest convenience. We will go ahead and try to have the recording and everything up by early next week. I want to say a huge thanks to our speaker today, Meredith Wilcox Levine. And also to Mike at Learning Times and FAIC, and of course we are an IMLS supported grant. And I'll leave you with someone earlier in the chat said, just generally says, oh, my God, thank you for telling me so much about how to ID buffered tissue. We have several roles of mystery tissue and storage, and I've been too scared to use on wool and silk. That buffered unbuffered question, we had a huge sign printed up where I worked one time to remind us the difference between the two. So if nothing else, I think people appreciate it again, kind of getting that sanction on the different type of tissue and how to use. So do you have any last-minute thoughts you'd like to share with our crew before you head off? I don't think so. I mean, thank you everybody for coming. Sorry I had technical problems, but I hope that everything was helpful. And I'm very much looking forward to looking through the chat archives just to see what everybody else has been saying. Thank you for listening to me for a little while. All right, thanks again. We'll be back in late August with an archaeological collection webinar. Please go to our website Connecting to Collections Care to register for that. And we will see you all next month. Thanks again.