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Hello im Sarah Glenn im a Textile conservator here at the V&A
and i have been working on this jacket as part of the Maharajas exhibition.
Its was worn by the Gaekwad of Baroda.
Its made from this black moire silk and this very beautiful but very heavy gold and silver embroidery
which has, the weight of it is so heavy it has been causing splits to occur through the silk
which is the main conservation problem that we have to solve
and because this is going on a mannequin we have to make sure the silk will hold up
and that the braid doesn't carry on splitting the silk in the same way.
So what i have had to do is to make a kind of inter-lining between the actual lining and the silk itself
And to get access into that i have had to undo all the original stitching,
so i have undone this bit here in order to put this black silk support in between
then i shall stitch around this black panel here
and then stitch it in place with laid couching threads to support the splits here.
I will also have to do the same thing for the arms
if you can see here there are lots of splits occurring just from the weight of the braid again
and i will have to do a similar thing as this back-panel, by undoing this arm seam here
in order to get this silk support in between the two layers
Ok, this jacket is going on display along with the pair of trousers that go with it which will also be conserved as well.
Also Jenny our RCA/V&A Conservation student has worked on the helmet here.
She has primarily been treating these feathers here which were very grey and dirty when we got them in the studio
So dirty in fact that we weren’t entirely sure what bird they came from.
So what she has been doing is very gently cleaning them with water and a tiny drop of detergent
which has kind of brightened them up
and we have since identified them as being swan feathers - so they will look pretty spectacular altogether on a mannequin.