After two months of hard work, we finished the restoration of a huge 10′ x 14′ antique tapestry. We hand cleaned this tapestry and then started its restoration. I assigned two of our master weavers with decades of experience to work on this fragile piece. It is made of wool and silk, but the construction was full of dust, dirt, and mildew. The foundation was rotten in many places. The problem was the fragile foundation and construction of the tapestry. We opened it wide on the floor and at night, we had to roll it up around a very big tube to put it aside. When we opened it the next day, some more and new places were damaged and it added to our work. We could not fold this tapestry and our repair masters could not sit on it to do the work because it would break.
It was difficult to match the color of the wool and silk we needed because the original color/dye was oxidized. Therefore we had to dye the wool and silk to match the color. Maybe I should not mention it here but in some cases we used tea and coffee to dye the yarn!
We did the final inspection yesterday and this morning and took many after repair pictures and videos. We should deliver the tapestry in a few days. I am surprised why this beautiful and huge tapestry did not have any backing in the first place. After we did the restoration, we hand sewed the backing we had prepared for extra support. Eventually, this tapestry will be hung again in our clients home.
Dr. Khosrow Sobhe (Dr. Kay)
Certified Rug Specialist (CRS)
www.LosAngelesRugCleaning.com
www.RugIdea.com
Tel. 310-770-9085
WOW what an amazing job. I am sure the client will be over joyed with your restoration.
Mentioning that you used tea and coffee to dye the wool is no faux pas. I tell clients when they bring in a rug with that kind of stain that it may be permanent because they do use tea and coffee to dye wool.
Synthetic dyes sometimes cannot achieve the results of natural dyes and tea and coffee are used in natural dying of wool.
Thank you Mary. This tapestry was hanging in the home of our client's parents for a long time in Berlin.