Textile History forum April 29-May 1 at Hyde Hall

3/23/2016

Hyde Hall, the 1818 Regency Mansion of George Clarke, will host this year's Textile History Forum April 29-May 1.
This year's forum will be a hands-on working project to identify, date and catalog the surviving drapery fabrics and trims from the dining room and drawing room of the Great House.
The forum will start with sessions to teach and train participants the techniques for fiber and weave structure identification, including microscopic analysis of fiber, yarn construction, fabric density and proper cataloging.
Sessions will include "George Clarke the Builder and His Surviving Receipts," "What Window Treatments Should Look Like for the Dining Room and the Drawing Room," "Trim and Ornaments in the Early 19th Century," and the actual identifying and cataloging of the collection.
This is an opportunity to do hands-on curatorial work in an amazing collection of surviving drapery fabrics.
There are receipts for many of the textiles and many of the fabrics have survived at least in part.
The goal will be to identify the surviving pieces and try to reconstruct how fabrics were used, while recording the information for Hyde Hall's records.
Many of the pieces have never been fully documented with fiber content, density, repeat size, and sewing techniques.
Forum participants will have a chance to contribute as well as learn from this experience.
The forum will be limited to 30 participants.
The three-day event will include lunches and one reception and dinner at Hyde Hall. Single day registration is available. There is a charge.
The Textile History Forum, begun in the 1990s is a biannual meeting to share research on historic textiles topics for scholars and textile enthusiasts.
Papers are published the day of the forum in the proceedings. This year, however, the forum has taken a different direction and will be acting as a training and practicum for anyone interested in learning to identify and date historic textiles and act as adjunct to the curatorial staff at Hyde Hall by cataloging the vast and unique textile and trim collection from the 1830s.
No prior experience is necessary to join this year's forum, just a desire to learn and help catalog textiles for Hyde Hall.
Contact Rabbit Goody. Thistle Hill Weavers, 284-2729, www.thistlehillweavers.com or Jonathan Maney, executive director at Hyde Hall, (607) 547-5098, www.hydehall.org for more details.