a new method for restoring ancient silk fabrics!
sorry - that's false advertising. it's new to me!!!
an enzymatic process has been found that allows ancient silk textiles to be restored
without damaging the fibers.
this is great news for researchers of ancient women's work!
the discovery of an enzymatic process for silk fabric restoration provides a whole new dataset for researchers in ancient women's work.
as so much of ancient women's work was produced by and resulted in perishable items (bone implements to create skin garments, for example), most of that evidence has long-since decayed, although tiny traces or chemical signatures often remain and are overlooked by the archaeologists on site.
the archaeology of women's work requires detail-oriented investigations on a microscopic scale. all too often, this does not happen at archaeological sites. clearly, this type of investigation is crucial to the understanding of women's work and therefore should be conducted at all sites going forward.
okay, so good news on that front! well, it's not exactly "news" as this article in chemistry world came out six years ago, but it's NEWS TO ME!
according to the article,
Chinese researchers have found a way to restore and strengthen ancient, fragile silk fabrics using an enzyme-mediated reaction to fill in tiny cracks in the fibres. The team says the work could offer a new conservation technique that avoids using synthetic polymers, which can be toxic and damage silk textiles over time.
this can be applied to silks that are thousands of years old without fear of damaging the delicate fibers. a whole new dataset, ladies!
huzzah! a leap forward for ancient womankind!
https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/filler-to-patch-up-ancient-silk-delicates/6102.article
AND
read about the shamanic qualities of textiles!
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