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Textile conservator, Gwen Spicer of Spicer Art Conservation at work

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Wet Umbrellas!

by Gwen Spicer

I remember the first time I saw a method of containing a wet umbrella.  It was in 2007 and I was in Taiwan, entering a metro station near the National University in the capital.  There at the top of the escalators was a dispenser of plastic bags, made to easily slip over an umbrella.  Later, I was entering a ceramics museum and an even more elaborate vehicle for umbrella containment was there.  In this version, you plunged your umbrella into the contraption, and it instantly enveloped your umbrella in a tight-fitted plastic (or shall we say "rubber") sleeve.  This was great, no wet drips on the floor as you walk to the coat room.  I thought, "Wow, here is a very organized country in a tropical climate".  True in the United States we don't quite have that sort of climate and perhaps not nearly that level of rain.  However, this simply means we are at an umbrella wrapping disadvantage.

Why do you ask is it so important to wrap your umbrella?  Let me tell you...
 Taipei County Yingge Ceramics Museum (2007)

I have since seen many other solutions in other countries and in the United States.

Ibere Camargo Museum, Porto Alegra, Brazil (Spring 2008)

Umbrella bags at the NMAI's Suitland facility. (Summer 2012)


Outside a historic house


1 comment:

  1. Mein computerverrückter Sohn studiert Art und zeigte mir diese Webseite WahooArt.com. Wir haben dann mal beide dort gestöbert und ich war wirklich begeistert über die grosse Auswahl von Kunstwerken. Da wir noch auf der Suche nach einem Gemälde für unseren Musikraum sind, haben wir uns dann für http://WahooArt.com/A55A04/w.nsf/OPRA/BRUE-5ZKCN9 entschieden. Und ich denke das der französische Maler Henri Matisse mit dem Gemälde "La Dance" perfekt zu uns passt. Was für eine schöne blaue Farbe.

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