{"id":492,"date":"2013-04-19T18:03:00","date_gmt":"2013-04-19T18:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/2013\/04\/19\/the-rug-from-hell-2\/"},"modified":"2013-04-19T18:03:00","modified_gmt":"2013-04-19T18:03:00","slug":"the-rug-from-hell-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/2013\/04\/the-rug-from-hell-2.html","title":{"rendered":"The Rug from Hell"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n<\/p>\n
\nThe Rug from Hell<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nTwo weeks ago I wrote about maintaining your vintage textile
\ncollection; here is Part 2 \u2013 Restoration. <\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nI am often asked about restoring a textile.  Can it be done?  My reply is always 3 words: Sometimes and It Depends.  There are fabulous, trained professional
\nrestorers that produce amazing results with a few remaining fibers.  These highly educated people are employed by
\nwell-funded museums and collections. 
\n\u201cIt Depends\u201d refers what is to be restored and the amount of $$$ you have
\nto spend.  Some simple repairs can be
\ndone yourself if you are handy with a needle and thread, if you are familiar
\nwith weaving techniques, you have a supply of repair materials or you are
\nfortunate to have a friend with the above.  Remember a poor restoration is way, way worse than leaving the textile in its present condition.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/a><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nNow I will tell you a story about a hooked rug restoration. The Rug from Hell<\/div>\n
\nOne day a client came by with a request for a restoration of
\na hooked rug that was a \u201cfamily heirloom,” \u201cvery, very old\u201d and \u201c much
\nbeloved.”  I had come \u201chighly
\nrecommended\u201d.  Now this usually means
\nthat several people had been approached before  and who wouldn\u2019t touch
\nthat rug with a ten- foot pole.  I told
\nher I would first do an evaluation that included photos of the rug, an
\ninspection of the damage, an evaluation of the rugs fibers and a listing of the
\nmaterials I would need to procure for the job. For this flat fee I would give
\nher the photos and reports and a ROUGH approximation of the cost based on my
\nhourly fee.  \u201cOK\u201d, She said. \u201cHere\u2019s a check\u201d and
\nbefore I could reply she was off to her car to retrieve this wondrous
\narticle.   <\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nI barely had time to cover my worktable with a clean cloth
\nwhen she plopped  a black garbage bag on it, which she opened to reveal a mass
\nof dirty tangled fibers of unknown origin. 
\nAghast, I pulled on some gloves. No way was I touching this, especially
\nsince I swear I could see something moving within it.  With a bit of gentle tugging, I could
\nsomewhat straighten the thing while client said softly \u201cOh, it seems to have a
\nsmall hole\u201d.\u201cI can\u2019t possibly restore this\u201d, I replied .Merlin the
\nMagician could not have restored it.<\/div>\n
\n\u201cBut you have my check for the evaluation. Could you just do
\nthat for me, please?\u201d  What could I say? She was right about that.  I would
\nmeasure and photograph it, write a very discouraging report and send her on
\nthe way to some other poor sucker.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nBefore I did anything, I wrapped it in the table cover and
\nstashed it in a freezer in my garage that I used only for textiles.   I
\nhad to kill whatever insect larvae had set up their home in the rug.  Days later, I reluctantly retrieved it and
\ntook it outside for a good shake, figuring any fibers I dislodged I would put
\ninto a plastic baggie to be returned with the report.  Unfortunately, what was left of the rug was pretty firmly
\nattached so I felt I could safely attempt to remove what appeared to be a
\nvast amount of dirt.  She hadn\u2019t said so but perhaps her family lived in the La Brea Tar Pits.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nOn inspection, the hooking technique used was
\nindescribable.  Clearly, the rug was made
\nby a group of 4 year olds at a summer craft camp.  Scattered over the surface were clumps of fiber resembling some
\nsort of grape-like texture, which turned out to be made of polyester. So much
\nfor the rug being \u201cvery, very old.”<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nI was sure, I was positive that my evaluation would have the
\nclient running for the hills.  Not so.<\/div>\n
\n\u201cIt looks better already,” the client said. Are you kidding me? She said,  \u201cHere\u2019s a
\ncheck for the first part of your work\u201d. And out she went.  I was so astonished I couldn\u2019t move fast
\nenough to stop her and so with the check in my pocket I resigned myself to my
\nfate.<\/div>\n
\nDays past. Weeks past. 
\nI could hardly bring myself to continue working on what I now called
\n\u201cThe Rug from Hell\u201d.  I swear it had a
\nlife of its own.  For every row of
\nhooking I replaced, like Penelope\u2019s weaving, a row  unraveled overnight.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nFinally, I had to quit, not that I was ahead, but this
\nproject could take a major portion of my remaining life.  Dreading the reaction I would get, not to mention
\nthe remainder of my bill was due, I unwrapped the finished rug.  \u201cOh\u201d, she gasped and I swear she started to
\ntear up.  I felt awful and started to
\nfigure how much of my fee I had to return to her.  She reached into her purse (for a gun with my luck) and withdrew
\nan old photo of a den or 1950\u2019s rec room (I could tell by all of the wood
\npaneling on the walls and ceiling and the patriotic patterned fabric on the
\noverstuffed furniture).  In front of the
\nfaux stone fireplace was a rug.  I took
\nout my magnifying glass and OMG there it was, THE RUG. The reconstruction was
\nnot exact by any means, but it was darned close.  She thanked me profusely and added a generous bonus to my
\ninvoice. <\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nNow for the moral of the story.  Value and worth are not synonymous.  The resale value of this rug was in  minus digits.  But to her, and presumably the family, its
\nworth was immeasurable. I had learned my lesson.  I would never, ever again put myself through another restoration
\nlike this one. <\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Rug from Hell Two weeks ago I wrote about maintaining your vintage textile collection; here is Part 2 \u2013 Restoration. I am often asked about restoring a textile.  Can it be done?  My reply is always 3 words: Sometimes and It Depends.  There are fabulous, trained professional restorers that produce amazing results with a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-restoration"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}