A painted and embroidered picture depicting Bodiam Castle, worked in polychrome silks on a silk ground. Typical of a number of similar pictures to have been treated at the studio, the silk ground fabric in the picture had split in several places. Extremely brittle, it was impossible to insert a support underneath the silk in the traditional way. Instead a template was made of the entire sky area in the picture, transferred onto appropriately dyed silk crepeline coated with a layer of 5% Klucel G (hydroxypropylcellulose) adhesive. The crepeline template was then applied over the damaged picture and the adhesive reactivated with industrial methylated spirit. Thiis forms a bond between the picture and the crepeline overlay, flattening lifting elements and preventing further splitting. The effect of the overlay is virtually transparent.	Embroidery of Bodiam Castle Client : The National Trust Left image, before, right image after conservation © Emma Telford Back to album page