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
From: Textile Conservators [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Ann Frisina
Sent: Friday, April 25, 2014 11:16 AM
That's what I want to use it for. Moccasins. I want three sizes, Child, Adult, Big Adult. Has anyone used the 3-dimensional zerox, I know probably the wrong name, to make forms yet? That would be the key. If we had forms we could use to make invisible mounts without having to wrestle with expensive mannequins.
Ann Frisina
Textile Conservator
Minnesota Historical Society
345 Kellogg Blvd. W.
St. Paul, MN 55413
651 259-3385
On Fri, Apr 25, 2014 at 10:03 AM, Kathleen Kiefer <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Ann,
I've formed Fosshape around a mannequin arm. Around a foot it would probably be great as part of a moccasin insert.
Kathleen Kiefer, Conservator
Material Culture Conservation, LLC
212 W 10th St, Suite B-240
Indianapolis, IN 46202
484-639-4749 - cell
On Fri, Apr 25, 2014 at 10:48 AM, Ann Frisina <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
I sometimes use a hair dry for a more focused direct stream of heat. Has anyone tried to form Fosshape around a mannequin foot? I have been thinking it could be a good support for moccasins.
Ann Frisina
Textile Conservator
Minnesota Historical Society
345 Kellogg Blvd. W.
St. Paul, MN 55413
On Fri, Apr 25, 2014 at 9:36 AM, Laura Mina <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Hello:
At the Philadelphia Museum of Art we have used Fosshape for many projects, and have found that different steam and heat tools produce different results. We typically use the regular head of a Jiffy steamer to set Fosshape.
What tools and techniques do others use?
Many thanks,
Laura Mina