Museum textiles provide priceless documentation of the activities of people throughout time. They record human interests and serve as resources for students of many disciplines. In New Zealand there are artefacts made from Phormium tenax which are extremely important in terms of providing a record of early New Zealand life and links to our past as both artistic and cultural symbols: they present an insight into the many faceted nature of early Maori culture. However there are some which are clearly in need of preservative treatment. Others may need care in the future for inevitably they are, or will be, subject to degradation during storage, when on display and during cleaning and refurbishing. Conservators, who embark occasionally on restorative treatments designed to reverse or arrest the symptoms of degradation, have begun to address the causes and future fundamental affects of their procedures. However there have been few scientific studies of the properties of the fibres and, therefore, there is little information to help the conservators in their tasks.
This study has a twofold purpose. The first aim is to provide a short survey of the literature on Phormium and relate it to other lignocellulosic fibres. The emphasis in the survey is to put the conservation problem in context and to point to those technical articles which may be relevant to someone dealing with ancient materials. Secondly there is a practical study of the impact of heating the fibres in the absence and presence of oxygen and in water. These two agencies are ones which are directly relevant to the conservator.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/217652 |
| Date | January 1988 |
| Creators | Twose, Megan Frances, n/a |
| Publisher | University of Otago. Department of Clothing and Textile Sciences |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | http://policy01.otago.ac.nz/policies/FMPro?-db=policies.fm&-format=viewpolicy.html&-lay=viewpolicy&-sortfield=Title&Type=Academic&-recid=33025&-find), Copyright Megan Frances Twose |
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