Cleaning of historical textiles and tapestries
Cleaning of tapestries, carpets, jacquard textiles, art protis and other special textiles (eg church chasuble, etc.) is one of the essential activities of the Studios of Tapestries Ltd.
We clean relatively new tapestries and other textiles that have been polluted by any way (mechanically, by nicotine, greasy dust, etc.), as well as historical tapestries, carpets and other textiles. Cleaning is always carried out before the actual restoration. Cleaning can be done also separately if the restoration work is not carried out. Depends on investors interest.
Cleaning procedure:
- Pollution testing of the fabric – assessment of cause and mode of the pollution
- In order to determine the method of subsequent cleaning, we first perform the color fastness tests of individual colors of textile fibers, from which the fabric is created
- Based on the results of these tests and in agreement with the investors the method and the cleaning procedure is selected
- We use different methods to clean the fabrics:
- First we remove the dirty textures of dust that can chemically disintegrate the textile fibers in the course of time. This is done by sensible manual vacuum cleanig of the dust over a protective textile net
- If the color fastness tests show that the colors in the wet cold or warm bath do not change, we choose to clean by the so-called ‘wet way’ in the water bath (demineralised and non-ionised water) with the addition of a neutral pH detergent.
- If there is a possibility that the colors might change during a wet way of cleaning we choose dry cleaning method such as dry foam, cleaning by special dust removing powders, local strong soiling by using a chemical way, wax staining with absorbent paper and heating. Various special textiles (such as chasuble, mitre, etc.) are cleaned by gradual soft, manual tumbling with distilled water and detergent.
- Cleaning of historical textiles: Textiles (embroideries, tapestry covers, jacquards) are removed from the seating furniture and prior cleaning are fixed to a sturdy net to prevent from changing their size after cleaning and be able to put them back on their original furniture after their repair is done.
Our cleaning is always manual, delicate and sensitive work.