wells museum samplers

Wells and Mendip Museum Historical Embroidered Samplers Case study.

These pieces came to us to prepare them for use in an upcoming exhibition, for Wells and Mendip Museum. They needed a light clean, with a conservation vacuum, just to loosen any ingrained dirt.

We then mounted them on to calico, as they didn’t have enough free edge to allow it to be mounted for framing and the edges that were available where too delicate to take the mounting process. We stitched them onto unbleached calico, using uncoloured monofilament. By working from centre to edge in vertical, horizontal, and diagonal directions we were able to stabilise the pieces enough for mounting.

When mounting we have two options, acid free conservation board or for larger pieces a aluminium mount board with a foam filler. This is then covered in calico to prevent any contact with the under materials. Finally, the pieces are pin stretched, over the board to hold them flat and herringboned to the boards. This also means at any time the whole process can be reversed, with zero harm to the original piece.

They were then framed under conservation glass to prevent any further light damage, by our museum trained framer. The pieces were also sealed to prevent moth or other bugs gaining entry and a light snack.

The clients were pleased with the pieces and the exhibition was a complete success.

“The work completed is outstanding and we are so glad to see these pieces out of storage, We will be reopening the museum including the sampler gallery shortly, but the display looks great as it is, and we will introduce the two that you are working on as and when we are able.”