The needlepoint seat we restored was part of a larger restoration/conservation project of a historic Mason and Hamlin Melodeon, ca 1866, shown above during assessment, and the small brass and glass claw foot spool turned Piano Stool which accompanied it, shown with the original needlepoint seat intact above.
(The Melodeon conservation, and the Stool Conservation, will be posted in separate blog posts at a later date.)
Note: We apologize in advance for the colors of the yarns, which were difficult to image properly. They were photographed with both flash, no flash, and in natural light and incandescent light, but some of the colors were simply “off” or garish.
The needlepoint was made by our client’s grandmother in the early 1900’s. It was terribly faded, as shown in the first image above, and there were broken fibers in the original yarn.
What we believe was a secondary moss fringe trim was removed, shown image #2 above. The overly large upholstery tacks (image #3 above) were carefully removed, and the needlepoint was free to be lifted from the split seat top, shown left.
When we discuss the restoration of the stool, more will be said about the fact that the stool as it was built was not intended for an upholstered seat.
After the needlepoint was removed from the seat top, it was ready for cleaning and restoration. We began by gently removed drips of wax on the needlepoint, then thoroughly vacuumed the needlepoint from the back through a hepafilter to preserve the stitches, and finally spot-cleaned the seat cover. Assessment and restoration commenced.
Before infill and reparation, left, and after, right.
To give you a sneak peek of the transformation, see the above detail of the before and after images of the floral image.
Not sure how well you can see the bits of broken and
lifting yarns in assessment images, above.
The most obvious areas in need of restoration where areas of missing yarn, but the original yarn which created the central image showed that many of the edges on the stitches were fraying. We made a decision to repair areas which were going to break completely once our clients began to play the melodeon again, rather than have them disappointed that the seat had to be again brought in for restoration
CHOOSING YARN COLORS
Unfortunately, we lost a days worth of images, and among them was the needlepoint turned over before Kate started the restoration. The video on choosing yarn colors, below, was made after the leaves and much of the small coral blossoms were completed. Still, the video speaks to the dilemmas of choosing yarns when colors have faded.
A video discussing the choosing of the yarn colors, above.
Above: the back of the floral image, left, and right, choosing yarns based on the
vibrant back colors. Note the picks which appear to have rubbed off on parts of the
calla lilies, above? We do not know from where the pink dyes came.
FADING
Reds tend to fade first. Greens can quickly turn brown because the red drops out. Our floral image before restoration appeared to be a study in browns, but the truth was the various corals and greens had faded first.
Originally the field was black, but it too had faded slightly and turned a deep blue-black, almost imperceptible.
This brings us to our first issue when choosing yarn colors: it is nearly impossible to match a faded color. The dyes used in yarns are not formulated to match faded colors. If this was a museum project with small areas of infill one might custom dye the yarns in advance of restoration, but this is costly and not practical for most private clients.
FINAL CHOICES
Our choice was to strike a balance in choosing our yarn colors. We began choosing yarns based on the backside of the needlepoint, then turned it over and considered how the deep vibrant colors might look against the various faded yarns which we did not plan on restoring.
Left, the beginning of consideration based on the back side of the needlepoint;
right, the yarns we considered as they were finally determined.
We used Appleton Bros LTD, 100% wool in a 2-ply twist, made in London. This is not a true needlepoint yarn, but we were using it OVER existing yarn in many areas, and found the 2-ply better in this situation, though we had to sometimes stitch three times through when there was no existing stitch.
Because Appletons is SO hard to find, skip the searches and purchase from:
HM Nabavian & Sons out of NYC
info@hmnabavian.com / 800-352-7510
If you purchase from their site the prices are better and they are wonderfully helpful. Know that you can also purchase a smaller put-up and only 1-2 skeins from their Etsy site for a few cents more to sample before you commit.
Though we used us a few colors up completely, we gifted our clients a 24-30″ length of most of the colors for future use if necessary. Colors #s used: 241, 242, 342, 293, 292, 342, 691, 696, 304, 695, 541, 303, 204, 205, 542, 851, 981, 701, and 993 (black).
LEAFY FOLIAGE
We wanted to distinguish the leaves from the shadows in the calla lilies, and so moved from warm greens (leaning yellow-red, think autumn greens) to cool greens (leaning blue, think mint) for the shadows in the coral buds and the calla lilies.
TINY CORAL BUDS AND FLOWERS
Our interpretation of the floral motif was tiny coral flowers and their buds.
Three coral shades and one brick-red-brown yarn color was used in the small flowers, shown right, surrounded by sage green foliage in two shades.
CALLA LILIES
A sample of the stitching of the calla lilies from beginning to end, above and
below right. In the first image, we are also showing detail of repairing the
black background between the flowers.
Detail of the shadow adds depth to the calla lilies, left.
The calla lilies were meant to show depth, but had faded so much that they had a flat cartoon appearance in shades of cream, beige and brown, shown in detail above left.
The stamen gold is a bit paler than the original, and the dark sage green is meant to show shadow around it, as it was intended.
We moved from a creamy white, to a very pale yellow, then into the green shadow colors, and that is Kate’s interpretation of the colors from the back side.
THE BACKGROUND, or FIELD
As stated, the field was originally black, however, had faded to a very dark blue-black.
We edged the field around the floral motif, shown right and in the left-hand image of the calla lily, above.
The field had a few outright holes, such as the one from a large upholstery tack, shown in the video and in the images below, before and after restoration.
A short video regarding the hole, above,
which Kate now knows is from a large upholstery tack.
Below, the hole before and after restoration.
The field was riddled with bits of the needlepoint grid showing through the black yarn, shown left in an image before restoration.
Kate realized that the most obvious bits of grid showing through happened where our client’s grandmother tied off her knots. Kate does not yet know why this would be more likely to expose the needlepoint grid. The video below discusses this oddity.
The mystery of the large bare areas in the field, explained, above.
Repairing the entire field was going to be a costly endeavor, so Kate limited her infill to areas that were riddled with exposed grid.
As the black yarn covers the exposed grid, the piece looks much better, shown right.
COMPLETION
Completion of this phase is the restoration of the floral motif and repair of the black field covering exposed grid.
We were able to leave the large historic leaves as they were originally, with infill only around exposed grid at the edges, and leave some of the buds intact as they were originally.
Above, detail of the floral pattern; below, the entire seat completed.
The Stool is repaired, and the finish restoration has begun. When completed, Mitchell plans to create a proper upholstered buildup and give it a showcover of cotton velvet. The needlepoint will then be hand-stitched to the new top of the upholstered seat with an appropriate trim.
dkatiepowell @ aol.com / mitchellrpowell @ aol.com
(So sorry, but we got too much spam — please copy and remove the spaces!)
503.970.2509 / 541.531.2383
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