We had the pleasure to conserve two pieces of Ken Ellis’ textile art for a private collector: the Shore Family, above, and Elizi Danto, bottom. It was a simple treatment, to clean as best we could some staining from a … Continue reading
Have you or your partner ever decided to fix a piece of furniture, thinking you could just glue it together? You glue it, maybe even clamp it, and it appears fine, but then you come back hours later to take … Continue reading
We had a call today from a prospective client who restored their récamier or fainting couch six years ago, with someone else. The news was sad. She had taken the piece to a local refinisher to have it refinished. The … Continue reading
Today I will find out how many people look for articles on hemp! Of course, I’m not talking smoking it, medicinally or otherwise. We use it all the time in our business: hemp webbing, tapes, muslins, and the occasional stretchy … Continue reading
Carnauba is loved by car aficionados because it is a great wax that makes their cars shiny in the hot sun! The special properties in carnauba allow it to buff to a high sheen and stay put even in hot … Continue reading
In our business we work with many specialty trades, and one of my favorites is blacksmithing. It is a macho cool thing to take steel and heat it and fashion it into usable parts, and a special talent to be … Continue reading
Most modern upholsterers create their cushions and backs and arms using limited materials: various foams, and Dacron® or cotton batting. Occasionally they will use feathers and downs. Traditional upholstery uses many different kinds of stuffing: Palm: algerian (palm leaf fiber) … Continue reading
It is hard for me to categorize our blog posts during this challenge. Lifestyle? Not craft, for we are a bit beyond what a crafty person can do as conservationists. We’ll be writing about the behind the scenes look at … Continue reading
Just a short post of the wonder of mixing micro-crystalline balloons into Rhoplex™. Whenever I do this I have to slow way down, and practice patience, which is not one of my virtues. Currently we have this lovely Louis XIV … Continue reading
by DKP This one piece has nearly given me ulcers worrying about the move. It weighs as much as an elephant, and while the backsplash comes off, it is still HUGE, bulky, and unwieldy. The men who moved her are … Continue reading
by DKP A family heirloom, this piece made it from Germany to the USA intact, but did not fare well from Oklahoma to Oregon, and was damaged by movers who did not pack nor handle the chair properly. This was … Continue reading
by DKP This is a lovely family heirloom, an American Empire Seignouret Chair made in New York. It had a soiled needlepoint seat, a seat that was dropping through, and the frame finish needed treatment and preservation. The chair was … Continue reading
by DKP This came to us a badly damaged sentimental family heirloom. The settee buildup was carefully excavated, the frame disassembled, the broken parts (arm, shoulder) were repaired and replaced. The original innards were cleaned and used to rebuild the … Continue reading
by DKP I am having lots of fun doing slide shows of our previous projects, which are diverse. Here are many Mid-Century Modern and Modern Classic projects from our files since we were liberated from old film cameras to digital … Continue reading
by DKP We had the opportunity to conserve the wonderful Eastlake style sofa-bed by A. Hansen Co., Chicago, Ill., below. Our client restored a Victorian in NE Portland, and this sofa-bed will grace her office. This is the seventh post … Continue reading
by DKP We had the opportunity to conserve the wonderful Eastlake style sofa-bed by A. Hansen Co., Chicago, Ill., below. Our client restored a Victorian in NE Portland, and this sofa-bed will grace her office. This is the sixth post … Continue reading
by DKP I love needlework, and repairing problematic tapestries. It is a meditation, hundreds of small stitches, and these days as I work I listen to Craig Johnson (Longmire Mysteries) or Pema Chodron (Buddhism) Jacqueline Winspear (Maisie Dobbs) or … Continue reading
by DKP What is an antique? Most define it as an object over a century old. Mid-century modern is beginning to come into its own both as a style or genre and also being very collectible. Vintage as defined by … Continue reading
by DKP This is the fourth post in a series on this project. This post continues from the previous post: East Lake Sofa-Bed Upholstery #2B: Repair. To begin at the beginning go to Eastlake Sofa-Bed Upholstery Conservation #1: Excavation. We made … Continue reading
by DKP This is the third post in a series on this project. This post continues from the previous post: East Lake Sofa-Bed Upholstery #2A: Repair. To begin at the beginning return to Eastlake Sofa-Bed Upholstery Conservation #1: Excavation. The front … Continue reading
by DKP “Chinese General Guard’s Treatment” is a slide show of MPF Conservation’s treatment of a pair of Chinese statues meant to be door guards. The treatment is a mixture of conservation techniques and restoration techniques. Both statues were dirty … Continue reading
by DKP We had the opportunity to conserve a wonderful Eastlake style sofa-bed by A. Hansen Co., Chicago, Ill. Our clients have restored a wonderful Victorian in NE Portland, and this sofa-bed will grace her office. This is the second … Continue reading
by DKP We had the opportunity to conserve a wonderful Eastlake style sofa-bed by A. Hansen Co., Chicago, Ill. Our clients have restored a wonderful Victorian in NE Portland, and this sofa-bed will grace her office. It was thought the … Continue reading
We make our own shellac, using traditional recipes. We use only the freshest shellac flakes, and use lab grade isopropyl alcohol as the carrier to support our interest in having a green studio. Continue reading
There really is a Shellac God. He is a fickle god, a prankster, and loves to keep conservators up at night biting their nails. Sometimes the impurities buried deep in historic layers of shellac varnishes are like pranksters. You think you have them under control then they raise up and cause you all kinds of problems. Here is my story, one conservator against 200 years of impurities. Continue reading
This gallery contains 12 photos.
Mitchell and I have slightly different personal tastes, and a good deal of overlap. He loves really old antiques, richly carved wood, ornately upholstered, tasseled, and I like modern furniture, with its sleek lines and rich colors. We both love … Continue reading
MPF Conservation is working to discover the original paint colors for the Hanley Farm exterior and for the foyer, and is assisting SOHS with a plan to preserve the stencils in the parlor. It is a wonderful historical farm with original furnishings, wallpaper, carpets, and accouterments — lovely! I walked the rooms one day snapping pics for fun: below are some wonderful objects. Let’s take a walk! Continue reading
Marguerite Wadin McKay McLoughlin was John McLoughlin’s second wife. She was born in 1775 in St. Lawrence, Quebec, to Jean Etienne Wadin and Marie Deguire, a French-Indian mix. She was the widow of Alexander McKay, a member of the Astor party, who died in … Continue reading
by DKP (Interviewing Mitchell) The first step in upholstery conservation is inspecting all the existing parts previously excavated, and cleaning all reusable parts. One of the things we like about this is that it supports a “green” business, part of … Continue reading
by DKP (Interviewing Mitchell) CATZ owner Sammy zips into the studio for the photo-shots. “O-U-T!” Part 2 finds us excavating the chair, which means to thoughtfully take the chair apart to be repaired with an eye to how it was … Continue reading
©MPF Conservation. May be printed for your own use. May be reposted if our url+copyright is used as reference. When we went to choose chairs for the event I came across this sweet child’s rocker by Heywood Wakefield. I asked … Continue reading
©MPF Conservation. May be printed for your own use. May be reposted if our url+copyright is used as reference. MPFC recently completed treatment of a washstand for the Mcloughlin House in Oregon City which came from the first steamship to sail … Continue reading
Truth be told, we own the business. They bring us the bacon, as they say (really it is chicken), and they complain that our hours are never billable. They don’t take enough breaks, though we constantly remind them by bringing them … Continue reading
The trend in American conservation is to think of conservation as science. A more balanced truth is conservation is an art that uses science. Infill is one area that proves that theory. Simplistically, one reason infill is performed in a … Continue reading
