We received a vintage print in a damaged frame. The ornamentation at the top of the frame was mostly missing as well as having some losses along the side. The side losses were relatively simple but the top ornament was largely missing leaving only the wire armature that had once supported it. We recreated the ornament borrowing elements consistent with the rest of the frame and of the period from which it had been produced. The fills were shaped and toned to blend into the original finish. This process allowed for a visually seamless transition between the original and the repair. The result was stunning. 

An antique embroidered eagle came into the shop. It was very fragile, sewn onto silk, padded with batting to raise to form a relief and stitched to a Chinese newspaper backing. We photographed the back for reference and attached it to the back of the finished piece using a mylar pocket. The piece was too fragile to trust stitching it to a mat board. The solution was to employ a direct contact overlay. We created a concave pillow using concentric layers of batting under fabric over a ridged substrate. The piece was placed between keep the “pillow” and a piece of museum grade acrylic. This process helped the work in place without stressing it and thus avoiding damage or slipping. No adhesive was used to mount the work, and no alteration was made to the piece. The result was that the piece was secure and displayed evenly. This piece presented numerous challenges. The consideration and approach to such challenges is something that has given our shop its reputation.   

A client brought in a photo portrait that was hand embellished using charcoal and paint to bring out the image of two children. This process, common in the late 19th & early 20th Century, was a typical example of such work for this period. The paper it was printed on was highly acidic and as a result was quite brittle and broken in places. It also suffered water damage and losses due to abrasion and infestation of mold. We created a digital image of the piece in our “Image Capture” studio and worked on restoring the losses and damage using Lightroom and Photoshop. The work, while tedious and time consuming, was extremely gratifying as we recreated the photo back to how it had looked originally. Our client was delighted with the result. 

A veteran brought in a banner from a Syrian Women’s Defense Unit that they had been attached to while on deployment. Our client wanted something that was reminiscent of the Middle Eastern culture that it had come from. We selected a beautiful 3” wide gold-leaf moulding. The banner was triangular and rather large. The backer was fabric wrapped and the banner was stitched to it. This allowed us to accurately determine the angles necessary to build the frame. Special jigs and clamps were created to cut the moulding to avoid the stock from creeping as we cut these steep angles. Once the frame was built, we worked on cutting the museum grade acrylic. Due to the size and shape of the piece our standard cutting equipment could not be used. Again, we needed to innovate, cutting a rectangle on our normal machine then cutting the angles by hand. This piece was tricky but our results were successful.