Camille Breeze to Offer Hands-On Workshop on the Conservation of Museum Textiles at NEMA Conference

Nov. 10, 2011 - PRLog -- Andover, Mass. – Camille Breeze, Director and Chief Conservator at Museum Textile Services, will be leading a hands-on textile conservation workshop at the 93rd Annual New England Museum Association Conference. The conference will be held at the Hilton Hartford Hotel in Hartford, Connecticut, November 16-18, 2011.

On Thursday, November 17, Camille will lead a hands-on workshop to teach museum staff how to safely stabilize fabrics in their collections. Textiles deteriorate over time, and conservators often use nylon net to stabilize fabrics and provide preventative conservation.

“Textiles are among the most common museum artifacts and their fragility can be an obstacle to safe handling and display," said Camille. "Stabilization with nylon net is appropriate for museum staff and volunteers to learn, assuming they have a knowledge of hand-stitching. Taking care of this procedure in-house can save a museum thousands of dollars, which allows them to use their conservation budgets more constructively."

Participants in the workshop will learn to evaluate a variety of textiles to determine which are suitable for nylon net stabilization and which should be turned over to a professional conservator. Participants will then practice stabilizing textiles with nylon netting, gaining invaluable hands-on experience that can be used on the objects within their own collections.

The 93rd Annual New England Museum Association Conference will begin with PechaKucha on the evening of November 15th. The conference will run from November 16-18, 2011 and will examine how museums throughout New England reflect the diversity of our communities. For more information, please visit the New England Museum Association’s website at http://www.nemanet.org.

About Museum Textile Services

Museum Textile Services, the premier textile conservation studio in New England, specializes in the preservation of fabric-based materials for cultural institutions and individuals. Museum Textile Services documents, cleans, stabilizes and mounts historic textiles. Through educational programs and outreach initiatives, Museum Textile Services teaches individuals and cultural heritage institutions how to ensure better preservation of their textiles. For more information, visit http://www.museumtextiles.com.