Monday 12 October 2015

St. John's Church Exhibition

This weekend (10th & 11th October) we had a small exhibition in St. John's Church, East Ayton near Scarborough.  As a branch we had done some work repairing the altar frontal for the church and instead of paying the branch to do it, we asked if they would let us put a display of work in the church.  We came to an agreement on the date which happened to be their harvest festival and they managed to get the archdeacon to come and bless the altar at the same time.  It was an enjoyable weekend, with many local people calling in on the Saturday to leave donations and join us all for coffee.  On Sunday, 2 of the team of 4 who did the repair work, joined the service and the harvest lunch afterwards.  We received a lot of compliments for all the work on display as well as the altar frontal.  This report will hopefully go into Contact magazine as well as the Regional Yearbook to show another way in which branches can promote themselves and the Guild.

The work undertaken was on the top 4 bosses of the frontal where the worst wear had occured.  The gold was unravelling and the silk shading was disintegrating.  We managed to match the threads fairly well for the silk shading and we bought new gold thread for the centre of the bosses but we re-couched the outer goldwork.  The fringe was gently brushed and we felt it would unwind if we washed it.  The old linen top was removed and a new piece inserted.  The gold shines out now when the frontal is on the altar but we have advised the church that next time it will have to be replaced.  We felt that the bosses were probably re-used ones from a previous frontal as they seemed quite old.
This is what one of the bosses looked like before.  You can see the gold thread hanging off.

This is what they look like now.


The full altar frontal.

Here are some of the exhibits dotted around the church and on display in the vestry.