This is the last blog in the series which reflects on the amazing skills of interns who chose the BSM lab for their placements. This particular intern was enrolled in the Master of Textile Conservation program at the University of Southampton, located in a port city on the south coast of England. They had worked […]
Boots & Blades: 19th century brand marks and models
The launch of our next virtual exhibition, Boots & Blades: The Story of Canadian Figure Skating, is coming up in the New Year, so the research into skates continues. In this blog, I’ll take a look at a few of the interesting makes and models of blades that we have been learning about. One of the […]
Q&A with Henry VanderSpek
This month’s Community Spotlight features a Q+A with Henry VanderSpek, documentary photographer and curator of Old World Shoes, a fascinating exhibition exploring independent shoe and shoe repair shops in Toronto. On display at the Daniels Spectrum in Regent Park December 2, 2021 to January 3, 2022. Can you tell us about your exhibition, Old World Shoes? […]
Student Projects: Part II of III
This blog continues to explore projects undertaken by interns at the BSM conservation lab. In 1982, the museum acquired one of several outfits, with matching shoes, made for Lana Turner when she starred in the 1955 MGM movie The Prodigal. The costume was composed of a heavily beaded silk bodice with silk pant-skirt attached. The […]
Boot & Blades: Blade Technology
This is a pair of ‘gliders’. Note the flat metal gliding surface and the thickness of the blade. The blade is also mounted close to the foot and this ‘foot stack’ is made of a thick piece of wood. Collection of the Bata Shoe Museum. Image © 2021 Bata Shoe Museum. As we continue to […]
Ask a Conservator Day 2021
Did you miss Ask a Conservator Day this year? Ask a Conservator Day is in remembrance of the flooding of Florence on November 4th, 1966, which damaged priceless cultural heritage. The social media campaign inspires conservators around the world to engage with each other to exchange knowledge and celebrate the growth of the field. Check […]
Student Projects: Part I of III
Due to COVID physical distancing we are unable to host conservation interns at this time. I thought I would continue looking into the way-back machine to share the work of previous interns. Most conservation programs require students to fulfill a placement with an established conservator mentor as part of their curriculum. In 2006, a student […]
Documentation Photography, Part 1: The Image Capture Process
In my last blog installment, I announced the start of the 2021 Digital Photography Project that is run with the assistance of the Government of Canada’s Young Canada Works in Heritage Organizations employment program. Since that blog was posted, we have been busy capturing images of artefacts in the collection. In this blog and upcoming […]
Bows for Beaux
From time to time, the BSM hosts interns from conservation programs looking for practical experience. In the early 2010s, when visiting a colleague working at the textile conservation lab at the Costume Institute, MET, in New York City, I was introduced to an emerging conservator from Colombia, South America. She expressed interest in visiting Toronto […]
Successful Young Canada Works Project for Bata Shoe Museum
The Bata Shoe Museum’s long-term project to digitally photograph everything in the collection is moving ahead in 2021. Heading the project since 2007, I am so pleased to have two university students join the museum this summer/fall for a 385-hour Young Canada Works in Heritage Organizations program, funded in part by the Government of Canada. […]