Posted byJoshua Cohen
My mormor (mother’s mother in Danish) would have been 100 years old today. How she would have loved to get a letter from the Queen on her birthday! We joked about it many times, especially after she turned 90. She knew that she and I held very different views about the royal family and that…
Posted byKatrina Finch
It was just by chance in 2017 that I came across a reference to the Oral History Project of the Foundation of the American Institute for Conservation (FAIC) in an issue of the IIC’s (International Institute for Conservation) journal. It mentioned undertaking an oral history with Karen. Dr Joyce Hill Stoner was mentioned as leading…
Guest Post Kirstie Buckland I think I first met Karen Finch in 1975 when she invited the Costume Society into Hampton Palace to her recently moved Textile Conservation Centre. She was conserving a Grenadier cap and I was the only member who recognised what it was. We struck up a friendship, it was so easy…
Posted byKatrina Finch
Guest Post Ruth Sinding My sister would have been a hundred years old, had she still lived on May the 8th 2021. She was born at our farm in Jutland, Meldgaard, situated near a village, Rødding, to the north east of Viborg. She was the eldest of eight children and a beautiful child. My father…
When Karen came to live with us in Bisterne Avenue in 2004, she was still fairly mobile despite very severe arthritic pains in her back and hips. In those early days, it was not unknown for her to pick up her crutches and walk on her own round the block – no mean enterprise considering…
Posted byKatrina Finch
Guest Post Maria Claydon I am very honoured to be asked to write something for Karen’s Centenary. I met Karen at a WEA evening class in History, many years ago. We immediately clicked and had a rapport, and after a few weeks of classes she asked me if I would visit her at her home….
Posted byPhilip Sykas
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 a more distant past formed…
Posted byAlan Cohen
To mark this year of Karen’s centenary, we begin the publication of the regular lectures which Karen gave as principal of the Textile Conservation Centre in Hampton Court Palace between 1975 and 1986. The introductory lecture, and the Appendices that follow, provide us with a good flavour of Karen’s approach to textile conservation and its…
Posted byKatrina Finch
Guest Post Elisabeth Thuesen, Copenhagen In October 2016 I was invited to pass some days together with Karens sister Ruth in London at the home of Karen, Katrina and Alan. Although Karen was at that moment physically weak she received me very kindly, and I was impressed by her experience of life and her education…
Posted byKatrina Finch
Guest Post Kitty Morris I would like to add a note about life at 7 Western Gardens when Karen ran a conservation studio from her home. In 1969 I was a fashion student with an interest in textiles. I was introduced to Karen by Zillah Halls, the curator at the Old London Museum in Kensington…
Posted byKatrina Finch
Guest Post Eva-Louise Pepperall As a young weaving apprentice in Copenhagen, I was one day invited to dine with my land lady Gerda Klint, widow of the architect Kaare Klint. Halfway through the meal Gerda suddenly threw out the question: “Now Eva-Louise, what are you going to do when you have finished your apprenticeship?” Totally…
A lover of parties, the biggest party possible thrown in her name would have been Karen’s dream. But of course the pandemic has ruled out that option. Many people have approached us about whether a memorial encounter was being planned and sadly the answer is no, but maybe one day. But what we are doing…