From: Zoe A. Perkins
Sent: Friday, April 25, 2014 11:20 AM
I would like a copy of the intern findings. A technique I use on the 600D Fosshape is to preshrink it a bit using a steam iron on padded table. I find that due to the thickness it is hard to estimate how much ease to allow for shrinkage. I then do the final shrinking/hardening when shaping.
Zoe A Perkins
Acting Director of Conservation
Textile Conservator
The Saint Louis Art Museum
One Fine Arts Drive, Forest Park
St. Louis, MO 63110
314-655-5271
From: Textile Conservators [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Maria Fusco
Sent: Friday, April 25, 2014 10:36 AM
We’ve had a couple recent interns work with Fosshape too with good results: making an invisible mount for an African tunic/cape (casting the upper torso on a dress form and hand working the lower portions of the mount to custom fit the lower regions of the cape) and making an invisible mount for a tshirt (casting on a dress form fitted with arms … getting the fosshape ‘sleeve’ right was tricky but manageable).
One of these clever interns, Tae Ahn from the FIT program, had a great idea to use a portable hand held steamer (Conair Extreme Hand Held Fabric Steamer with Dual Heat, model GS23) and we found this to be more useful than our Jiffy Garment steamer – it uses less water, gives you more mobility, control & directed steam & can get into smaller spaces. We’ve also used tacking irons at times. The interns write up brief reports on their working observations of the material and various steam/heat tools – if anyone’s got a project going in the near term and wants to read them , let me know!
Maria
Maria Fusco
Associate Conservator, Conservation Department
The Textile Museum • 2320 S Street NW • Washington, DC 20008
tel. 202.667.0441, ext.28 • fax 202.483.0994