Vanilla Root
Bracelet
Kew Gardens, Economic Botany Collection, London
This thick band or bracelet constructed of woven roots from the vanilla bean plant (family Orchidaeceae, genus Vanilla) was broken. The bracelet's exact provenance and culture are not given. The object record posits that the band originated in “Tropical West Africa,” but offers no further information.
Many objects, especially from Mexico, are constructed from vanilla pods. However, no other examples of vanilla root as a weaving material were found. The Economic Botany Collection has objects made from plant materials, which are identified down to the genus and species level. Many analogous objects in ethnographic and anthropological collections probably do not have the precise plant materials identified to this level. As such, collections may contain woven vanilla root and not know it.
See below for more details of my treatment process.
Before Treatment
In the image on the left, you can see the damage to the brittle vanilla roots One large tear extends through the width of the bracelet and a smaller tear directly across. The entire bracelet was warped from storage.
A small blueboard box with a Tyvek-covered ethafoam insert were created to gently reshape the bracelet.
Treatment Process
I cleaned the bracelet with Groomstick to remove surface soiling.
Under local humidification with a Preservation Pencil, I repaired the small tear in the bracelet by weaving 1.0mm strips of toned smooth Tyvek through gaps in the fibers (A). I tacked the ends into place with arrowroot and sodium alginate paste.
To make the fill, the strips were woven into a 2/2 plaited twill pattern to match surrounding areas on the bracelet. I wove loose ends into the areas surrounding the loss and attached them to the bracelet with arrowroot and sodium alginate paste. Once the fill was in place, I toned it a darker color with Golden Acrylic paints to match (B and C).
A
B
C
Photo by Abby Duckor
