About
Vanessa Bray
Textile Conservator
Kinjarling Textile Conservation is a freelance conservation business founded by Textile Conservator Vanessa Bray. After several years working with and learning from Rinske Car at Denmark River Textile Conservation Studio, Vanessa undertook a year of intensive textile conservation studies under Dr. Mie Ishii at Saga University in Saga, Japan.
Upon returning to Australia, she completed her Master’s in Cultural Materials Conservation (H1, First-Class Honours) at the University of Melbourne, majoring in Objects Conservation.
Recently, Vanessa completed a 13-month contract as the Textile Conservator at the National Museum of Australia. Returning to her home state Vanessa is eager to share the specialized knowledge and skills she has acquired with the Western Australian community.​
Mission
Textiles are also some of the most fragile and difficult to conserve materials. Being largely organic materials they are highly sensitive to degradation by environmental factors, changes in pH conditions, solvents and chemicals, and insect attack. Specialized training is required to understand the complex interactions involved in these degradation processes and their effect on the wide range of textile materials including animal sourced protein-based fibres, cellulosic fibres, and the many synthetic and semi-synthetic materials. They are also often incorporated in composite objects, involving an even greater level of chemical interactions with a wide variety of other materials.
In order to preserve these materials, Vanessa has been driven to understand the chemical interactions and complex processes involved, studying chemistry, analytical science, and seeking out opportunities for textile conservation training, not readily available in Australia.
Purpose
Drawing on a lifetime spent working with textiles, the rich language of these materials communicates both intimately personal and collective experiences. Textiles are often highly personal, are worn close to the body and evoke vivid memory and emotional responses. They are culturally rich and often embody women’s stories and experience as they were often relegated to the realm of ‘women’s work’, inhabit domestic realms and were passed on through familial relationships. They readily communicate concepts of comfort, concealing, care, and mending.
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Vanessa loves the way conservation can help to discover and unlock the stories and intangible cultural values that are contained and often hidden within objects. Through careful study and care we are able to tell the stories of those who made, wore, and treasured these textiles, giving a voice to those who might not be heard and otherwise forgotten.
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