The Bowes Museum Blog

May 2017 has marked a new era for the Textile Conservation department. After several months of lying empty there has been a new surge of activity, first with the appointment of a new Textile Conservator, Cecilia Voss and then with two new interns, Leyre Quevedo Bayona and Aisling Macken.

We have lots of exciting things planned over the next year, some loans, some exhibitions and major plans to work on the Bowes costume collection.

My name is Cecilia Voss and I am the Textile Conservator. I graduated from the University of Glasgow Textile Conservation MPhil in 2015 and have since worked at the National Museum Scotland in Edinburgh and the Burrell Collection in Glasgow. I became interested in textile conservation age 16 when I went to the V&A for a week’s work experience and have since built a strong relationship with the V&A even getting the opportunity to conserve some of the shoes which went into last year’s shoe exhibition! I’ve been lucky enough to work in all sorts of exciting places, including a tapestry conservation project at the Houses of Parliament and exhibition cleaning in the recent exhibition of the queen’s dresses in Holyrood. I like cats and dresses!

Cecilia supporting a sleeve of the ‘Pineapple’ wedding dress

Cecilia and the ‘Pineapple’ wedding dress

Leyre Quevedo Bayona is the first of our ICON interns. She has joined us from Spain where she completed an undergraduate degree at Escuela de Arte y Superior de Conservacion y Restauracion de Bienes Culturales “Mariano Timon” in Palencia specialising in textiles. Since graduating she has undertaken a 3 month internship in Heritage Malta working on several items including a gas mask which got a visit from the queen! She likes cats and reading!

Leyre humidifying a bodice

Our second ICON intern, Aisling Macken, is arriving at the end of July. She is currently completing the MPhil in Textile Conservation at the University of Glasgow. Her first experience in conservation was working alongside a private textile conservator in Calgary Alberta for two years, conserving a collection of flood damaged textiles. Since starting her MPhil, Aisling has volunteered at the Burrell Collection, as well as for the project Situating Pacific Barkcloth Production in Time and Place at the University of Glasgow, and completed a three month work placement at The British Museum. She likes cats and knitting!

We hope to write lots of exciting blogs over the next year about all our conservation projects, so watch out for them all!

By Cecilia Voss, Textile Conservator