Fringed Border with Birds Sharing Feathers as Their Tails

This Chancay tapestry border with double-headed birds was crumpled and misshapen when it entered the collection. The object was placed inside a humidity chamber constructed like a tent from plastic sheeting on a wood frame  (see image #4 above). A cool-mist, ultrasonic humidifier was used to introduce enough moisture into the chamber to make the textile fibers more supple. The object was then gently flattened by hand, revealing a band more than 50 inches in total length. Throughout the length of the border fragment, there are losses to the tail feathers of the woven bird images. These feathers appear to have originally been a dark brown color. Dark dyes often use an iron mordant to help set and darken the color. Over time, this iron is corrosive to the dyed fibers and often also to adjacent threads in the weave, such as the underlying warps in this weft-faced weave. The fibers become so brittle that they crumble away, leaving holes in the textile (see image #5 above). Conservator Patricia Ewer lined the fragile textile with a sheer nylon backing  (see image #6 above) that supports the areas of loss, while still permitting examination of the back. The object is stored rolled around a padded tube, which is partially unrolled for display.  

For more conservation information, please see The Threads of Time Conservation Project.