Day 14 6/5/14- Back to Peebles Island

Cloth Used to Restore a Couch

Today we had another easy day. We went back to Peebles Island but this time we did not play in the river or walk the nature trail. Instead we went behind the scenes of artifacts and visited Peebles Art Restoration. This was really cool to see and I was interested in what they had to say. They restore and preserve products for all different historical sites, many of which we have been to. The picture above shows the type of cloth that was used to restore a couch that was completely falling apart. It took many years to decide what type of cloth to use because they wanted the cloth to be very similar to the original cloth type. I think the cloth was really close to the original and I thought it was really pretty. The leaves on it made me think of the forest and nature.

Example of Paintings Being Restored

 After we left the fabric room, we went to the room where they restore paintings. The picture above is a before and after picture of a painting being preserved. This picture was stored in a barn and was recently given to Peebles Island Art Restoration. The rip you see in the picture on the left is from a cow. The process needed to fix this tear is amazing. While working under a microscope they would try to stretch the fibers back out to close the rip. They also would use floss to fill in the spots that could not close. This must take a lot of patients and personally is not something I could do, I'm just not that patient. This picture to me shows that even if something appears as ruined or seems like garbage it is still fixable, it just takes time. A lot of the time I will get rid of something or simply just throw it away because there may be a minor break in it, which is a common trend in society today. For example I know when my parents' washer broke they just went and bought a new one. They claimed it was easier that way. Maybe if we as a society would fix appliances and even simple things we could save money for ourselves and help save the environment in the process by not contributing more garbage than we have to and not creating as much pollution by factories making more of these objects that could easily be fixed. This picture just made me realize that things are fixable. I understand that some things cannot be fixed and that is fine but our society seems to think it is easier to just throw the object out and the same thing new.

Gold Paper Used on Picture Frames

The next room that really interested me works very closely with the painting department and that is the frame department. When we first walked in we were watching a woman paint this gold paper onto the frame. What interested me was to make the gold look old like the rest of the frame she would use special aging chemicals, which amazed me how it could be done so quickly. Then it made me think of all the paintings I saw in places like Olana and just wondered how many of the paintings I saw there could have been restored and then made to blend in like the one she was doing in front of us today. We also were able to see two mirrors that were in Johnson Hall, a historical site we visited a few weeks ago. I liked how we were able so see how the artifacts are restored for places that we have been.

Gate on Lock 2

Boat In Lock 2

After the tour of the restoration center, Toby wanted to show us the lock system. This was not as exciting to me because I grew up around the locks and have seen this plenty of times. It was really nice to see others around me to get excited seeing something they have not seen before. This just goes back to my first blog, some people experience different things than others. I found this part boring because I have seen it so many times but to my peers around me it was an amazing experience. Although I was not super excited but I like learning about the lock system. The boat calls the lock system before they get there to let the lock master knows they are coming. When the boat arives the lock master will signal when it is safe to enter the lock with a green light. The boat will then hold onto a rope while the water is either drained or filled up. Once the water is at the appropriate level the boat will pay the fee and be on its way until the boat gets to the next lock. It will then go through the same process. One thing I learned that I did not know is that the fee for using the lock is priced by the length of your boat. The picture above shows the doors to the lock system, which symbolizes opportunity. Back when the locks were veey popular and were commonly used people would travel along the river to transport and sell goods. The lock system is still used today for trade and transporting goods but it is not used as frequently as it used to be.  It is cool to watch the water rise and drop but I really do not want to travel through the lock system. Toby was telling us that we would and I told him that I refused. I think this is because this would be a new experience for me and like I have stated before I am afraid of the unknown. I am really dreading the day we go through the lock system.