As a freelance conservator I rarely get the opportunity to work on projects that will last longer than a few months so it’s great to have an ongoing project. This project is with the Archdiocese of Brisbane at St Stephen’s Cathedral where
I have come across a few textiles that have historical pressure sensitive tape being used support splits and to hold them together. This is from the @rhs_qld collection, a silk program from 1878 with adhesive tape down the centre. Most of the pressur
I’ve taken some time out this year and last year to show my children the world. We have been lucky enough to be able to take 4 and a half months off work and school to head back (home) to England for my sister’s wedding and take an extend
A few years ago I was contacted by Gympie RSL to conserve the HMAS Gympie flag. HMAS Gympie served during the WWII and was launched in 1942 and decommissioned in 1946 and sold for scraps in 1961. The flag was signed by the crew in 1941 and had been p
I never tire of working on samplers, there’s something so intimately beautiful about them, especially when they are girls learning the craft of embroidery from such a young age. This came to me, as many do, in a frame that has been detrimental
I’ve had some fantastic projects last year (and not on top of posting them on instagram!) and some sewing projects that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed. This tapestry is one of them and sometimes I feel like I have a bit of a connection. I recent
I’m very grateful that my job lets me explore this amazing country. This project took me to Oakey and the Army Flying Museum where I met a wonderful team who took their time to show me around and tell me so many stories of the objects and their
A couple of weeks ago I worked with @hotagc mounting costumes for their current exhibition ‘Made in Surfers Paradise’. I had to create floating mounts for these wonderful 1950’s bikinis that were on loan from Manly Art Gallery @maga
I’ve just been going back through the thousands of work photos on my phone and thought I’d share some of my favourite closeups from the McQueen exhibition from last year. I love good details! . . #textileconservation #embroidery #McQueen
Just before the beginning of Covid lockdown I conserved the dress uniform for Sir Samuel Griffith for Queensland Museum. Once lockdown was lifted I then mounted the uniform for the Supreme and District Courts. This year I had the privilege of conserv
A few years ago I was lucky enough to work with Queensland University of Technology where they were trialing photogrammetry of museum objects and this time textiles were selected to be photographed in the ScanCave. I was brought in to dress an Easton
Last week I was working in situ at the Algester Anglican Church in Brisbane conserving a Reredos fixed to the wall behind the altar. The textile consists of 140 rectangles and each rectangle was embroidered by an individual member of the church and o
I am bursting with excitement to be back at the @ngvmelbourne working with the conservation team again and on THIS exhibition! I missed the @vamuseum exhibition back in 2014 as I moved to Melbourne before the exhibition opened, but was lucky enough t
A lovely set of Japanese hand embroidered silk panels needing some conservation before being framed. A gentle vacuum and humidification to relieve some of the creases was applied. A silk crepeline adhesive support was applied to the areas that were h
A nice stitching job mounting two Hermès scarves for a client to have framed in her home. The red scarf is for her daughters room which is a lovely fairytale print and one I know my daughter would love in her room too. I used a fine Skala 360
Last week I had the opportunity to give advice to people looking after textile collections within their local museums and heritage centres through Brisbane Living Heritage . #Repost @brislivheritage with @use.repost ・・・ We had an enjoyable morning at
Here’s a sweet little Chinese embroidery that needed a surface clean, humidification and mounting onto some backing material for framing. We chose a blue grey material that is reflected in the embroidery itself. The owner purchased this from a
Closing on 18th April 2022, the perfect Easter weekend activity if you’re in Brisbane #Repost @museumofbrisbane with @make_repost ・・・ A new pop of colour added to our exhibition, City in the Sun ☀️ Textile Conservator, Louise McCullagh joined
I thought being on my second maternity leave I’d have plenty of time to post like I did with my first child…how wrong I was! This took place many months ago before baby arrived. Testing the threads of the tapestry with deionised water an
The next step for the tapestry was removing the hessian and previous wool repairs. The video shows the first patch of hessian being removed which was one hour’s worth of work condensed into 30 seconds. The other two patches were removed which