GRAND FATHERS SILK EMBROIDERED FLOWER

This piece came in from a gentleman, whose grandfather stitched to help with his PTSD after World War 2. He stitched prolifically throughout his lifetime, but at his death they only found a couple of pieces stuffed at the back of a garage. The piece depicts a desert flower and stem, in silk thread on a heavy silk base.

Unfortunately, this piece had been mounted on hard board with thumb tacks, leaving stain marks from the board and rust marks from the pins.  He wanted to frame it for him new home. 

We set about giving it a vacuum to remove all the years of surface dirt, and it came out several shades lighter.  Then we removed it from the mount board and began treating the stains with alcohol and dry-cleaning sponges.  

The worst of the board stains lifted, but as we all know rust is a hard stain to shift.  Luckily it was on the back, so we could hide them with a careful bit of mounting.

The piece was mounted, due to its size on aluminium foam board, to give it strength and prevent warping, but keep it light for mounting in a frame.  The board is covered in unbleached calico to protect the heritage piece from damage, then herringboning the piece to the calico cover, for easy removal if needed.   We then arranged for our specialist framer, to mount under conservation glass, with a frame of the clients choosing.

The client was delighted, it was such a sentimental piece for him, and to keep a tiny piece of his grandfather in his new home.