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Editor’s note The images in the right-hand margin (indicated by red numbers within the text) are the slides Karen displayed while she was delivering the lecture. Part 1: History 1 2 3 4 Sheep 1 were among the first animals to be domesticated. Primitive sheepskins were hairy, probably like a…
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As important as healds and reeds are to the weaving process, little has been documented about their history or production. Alfred Barlow cursorily encapsulated the developments in heald making: ‘Healds were formerly made by hand by means of a reel, &c., and many are still formed so. […] Heald-making machines…
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The first lecture will introduce you to the structure of the course and to what we hope to achieve, and give a brief history of textile conservation with its particular ethics and the principles to which we work. The First Year or Basic Course is designed to provide the key…
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The folk custom of hanging funeral garlands in churches was one of many topics that would have been raised in the wide-ranging discussions that generally followed Karen Finch’s weekly lectures to first year students on the Textile Conservation course in 1980/81. Customs involving textile objects that connect our lives to…
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Well, this is day one of our sessions for the AIC oral history file. And the obvious thing to start with is where and when you were born. On a farm in Northern Jutland in Denmark. And do you want my birthday too? Well, it would be helpful. On the…
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Well, this is day two, it’s July 17th, 1985, and this is an interview with Karen Finch. Actually, I wanted to pick up on what we were talking about yesterday, and the Royal School of Needlework. I was wondering if the people like yourself were considered apprentices, or were you…
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Where did we get to yesterday? Well, yesterday we got to when the committee was set up to get the palace. No, the committee was set up to get charitable status for a National Institute for Textile Conservation. That’s right, excuse me. Yes, and the offers of space came from…
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Well, this is our last session, and I’m going to change the subject from last week’s adventure on the roads, to the Centre’s moderate position on the use of adhesives. I was wondering how you felt, because in conferences, the Centre does put across this moderate view that they will…
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An enormous curiosity about textiles led Karen Finch, who died this year aged 96, on an unusual life journey as a weaver, textile conservator and educator. Born the eldest daughter in a Danish farming family, her presumed fate was marriage, bringing with it land and children, but she was determined…
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Abstracted in free translation by Karen Finch (1998) from: Sofus Larsen. (1939) Nordisk Guldspinding og Guldbroderi i den tidlige Middelalder. København: Ejnar Munksgaard. Note on the translation: I wish to stress that the information abstracted relates mainly to the practical aspects of making gold thread for weaving and embroidery. Sofus…
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