Fashionability: Abraham Moon and the Creation of British Cloth for the Global Market

Abstract

An early nineteenth-century pink silk crepe gown adorned with thousands of faux pearls was one of the highlights of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s Autumn 2010 exhibit Fashioning Fashion. During conservation treatment, the faux pearls were examined in detail in order to inform conservation decision-making and a curious manufacturing method was found, namely a practice developed in the seventeenth century by a French rosary maker: delicate and hollow glass beads were filled with a slurry of material derived from fish scales and gelatin or sturgeon glue. This information supported treatment decisions for the piece and is shared here to disseminate information on the history and manufacture of faux pearls and to inform collections care approaches for costume decorated with these extraordinary and fragile beads. This approach demonstrates how detailed examination of an object can act as the catalyst for exploring the history of manufacturing technology as well as deepening understanding of dress history.     

Fox Palaces: the playful occupation of a Johannesburg city park

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the playful occupation of an inner-city park in Johannesburg, South Africa, by the Hummingbird Play Association. Playful occupation emerged as a strategy to create and demand spaces for children’s play, demonstrating through practice the possibilities for public play provision. Children’s play is read as a form of folklore, through which children’s and adult’s spatial experiences and imaginings of the city can be viewed. It considers how opportunities for play facilitated with Playwork Principles in mind can co-create safe spaces for children which could act as tools for social transformation and justice in the urban public realm.