Archive for the 'Textiles' Category

National Historical Machinery Rally, Mudgee 2013

Published on April 19, 2013 by Debbie Rudder in Planes, Trains, Automobiles and Engines, Technology and Textiles. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .
Powerhouse Museum Collection, object B1067. Gift of the University of Sydney, 1947.

Powerhouse Museum Collection, object B1067. Gift of the University of Sydney, 1947.

Mudgee is the place to be from 19th to 21st April. Historic engines and tractors will be there in force, but there will be a lot more to interest visitors, from Clydesdale horses to old-style games for children. Powerhouse Museum curators have selected a group of highly significant objects to take to the event, including this early Daimler high-speed petrol engine, four early gas engines, specimens of fine wool grown in the Mudgee area, a rare woollen convict jacket and an amazing fine-wool jumper knitted by Mudgee’s own Myra Mogg in 1935.

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Farewell to curator, Christina Sumner, OAM

Published on February 4, 2013 by Anne-Marie Van de Ven in ceramics, Curator profiles, Object of the week and Textiles. 3 Comments Tags: , , .
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Christina Sumner, Principal Curator, Design & Society in the basement with textiles, including 92/775 Suzani (needlework), Collection: Powerhouse Museum

On the eve of of Christina Sumner’s departure we asked her a few questions about her experiences at the Museum over the last 28 years.


What have you enjoyed the most about working in the Museum?

Always always always it’s been the people and the collection. I’ve been lucky enough to spend every working day with curatorial and other colleagues who are bright, interested, articulate and as passionate as I am about the collection – building it, and committing ourselves to interpret, tell stories about and communicate the meaning of our objects to the wider community.

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World AIDS Day 1st December 2012- we have come a long way

Published on December 1, 2012 by Anni Turnbull in Health, Object of the week and Textiles. 0 Comments Tags: , , .
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One of the 97 Australian AIDS Memorial Quilts held in the collection. 2011/109/. Gift of the Sydney Quilt project, 2011. Collection: Powerhouse Museum

The theme for this year’s WORLD AIDS Day is ‘getting to Zero, which mean zero new HIV infections. Zero discrimination . Zero AIDS related Deaths’. Australia has come a long way since the first World AIDS Day in 1988 and the first AIDS case came to its shores in 1982.

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String bags, AIDS and Papua New Guinea

Published on November 28, 2012 by Christina Sumner in Health, Object of the week, Photography and Textiles. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .
A looped string bag or bilum made from plant materials in Papua New Guinea in the early to mid 1900s. Powerhouse Museum collection 2011/44/12-2

A looped string bag or bilum made from plant materials in Papua New Guinea in the early to mid 1900s. 2011/44/12-2 Powerhouse Museum collection

Always bulging, because that’s their nature, string bags are almost a thing of the past, relegated to memory by designer totes and paper carrier bags. One of the few string bags I see these days is the orange one my daughter uses to stuff all the beach toys into. This week however I’m reminded of those capacious multi-purpose string bags known as bilums that are traditional to Papua New Guinea. The connection? The photographic exhibition Access to Life which has just opened at Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum for World AIDS Day 2012. Sydney is the tenth city in the world to show Access to Life, but the first to add Papua New Guinea as a special regional component.

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History Week 2012 Threads – Sevres plate depicting textile dyeing process

Published on September 10, 2012 by Debbie Rudder in Art, ceramics, Chemistry, Environment, Fashion, Costume and Dress, History week and Textiles. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .
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Collection: Powerhouse Museum. Object number 93/277/1.

Here’s a rare treat for History Week: a richly illustrated and gilded porcelain plate that links the threads we wear with history, science, and the processes used in the textile and ceramic industries. The plate was made in the French town of Sevres in 1830 and depicts textile dyeing in another French town, Jouy-en-Josas. The use of colour in these industries depended on both craft knowledge and scientific understanding, and it was achieved through cooperation between factory workers and chemists.

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Gulgong Pioneers Museum Blog

Published on June 27, 2012 by Kate Chidlow in Conservator's Corner, Fashion, Costume and Dress, Museology, Object of the week, Regional Services and Textiles. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , , .
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Gulgong Pioneers Museum. Image courtesy Mudgee tourism

I was contacted late last year by Marie Gorie from the Gulgong Pioneers Museum about a project she was about to undertake. She wanted to re-order the textile store. Maintaining a collection store takes a lot of time and resources and obviously, as the collection grew, some of the maintenance had slipped.
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Fact or fiction using forensic science in conservation

Published on May 23, 2012 by admin in Conservator's Corner, Object of the week and Textiles. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .
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2000/67/1 Horse cover, knotted pile weave, wool, Tekke Turkmen, Russian Turkestan, 1907. Collection: Powerhouse Museum

Trying to date an object can be a challenge particularly if it has been in the collection a while with little background information. Now there are a few ways of identifying the origins of an object. In this case we have determed the age of a textile by identifying the red dye.

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