The Bowes Museum Blog

Hi! I’m Laurie, one of the new HLF and Icon Textile Interns at the Bowes.
After sitting badly at a desk job for 4 years I realised that there was more to life and that a job is something that should make you proud, excited and keep you interested. I spent days piecing together all the things I loved and trying to combine them in to a career…or a job title… or finding something that would incorporate everything: Art, History, Heritage, Craft Skills… and suddenly there it was, the answer to everything…. CONSERVATION!
Skip to Summer 2014 I graduated from Camberwell College of Art, with an MA in the Conservation of Books and Archival Materials (which means extras like paper and parchment) and moved back home to the North East to work at Durham University’s Palace Green Library as a Conservator. This was a brilliant job, working with Exhibitions and the University Collection as well as inspiring Conservators. From Palace Green, I moved to Norfolk for a year, to try my hand at Textiles Conservation with the National Trust at their Textile Conservation Studio. The studio and the team there opened my eyes to the care of textiles in historic houses across the country. I left feeling encouraged by the experience and the great Conservators there and feeling that Textiles conservation is the direction I wanted to take my Career in…
But wait, the Bowes internship hasn’t asked for applications yet?!!?! Returning to Newcastle, I spent some time working behind a desk for the Council waiting for the Bowes to put out their next advert for Interns… in the mean time I began working for TWAM (Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums) where I took on a role as their Conservation Technician. This was at the beginning of summer 2018 and the team were working super hard to get ready for the Great Exhibition of The North!

Eventually Bowes advertised, I applied and at the beginning of September 2018, I arrived at the Bowes Museum! Since starting I’ve been orientated, done some test stitching and along with Calum, the other textiles Icon & HLF Intern, we’ve humidified a Banner for the World War 1 exhibition and assessed a number of items from the collection for potential re-display. Among these items are two 20^th Century handbags which I have been working on: The first, a cream coloured purse with small flowers decorated with beads embroidered in a pattern on each side. It also had some red cord around the edge which had faded. I made sure any loose beads were secure and used a conservation netting over the cord around the edges as the light damage it has had over the years, has caused fading and the silk has begun to shatter. The net will lend support to the cord.

My second object was a brown Corduroy clutch bag, with a metal handle on one side and a looped handle on the other. The looped handle had been repaired by its previous owner – in my imagination the repair was done in a hurry just before a night out as it was the ONLY bag she could use that would go with her outfit (been there done that, am I right?).

The repairs had to be removed, as when we open the bag, we see that they are done through damage on the inside lining of the bag! Here the weft threads have been lost, so, in order; we are to remove the repairs previously done to each handle, in the case of the looped handle it was removed completely, the inside lining was repaired using a colour matched patch of silk poked beneath it and stitched through to secure it.

Calum and I have also helped to clean the Catwalking Exhibition using museum vaccums on low suction. And I’ve been getting to grips with Tapestry 2 from the Bowes Collection, which is based on Durer’s ‘Presentation of the Virgin’.

Written by Laurie Endean, Heritage Fund & ICON Intern in the Conservation Department at The Bowes Museum.