Move Recap #1

Rich Reinke and Linda Zwicker, still smiling!

Okay we are back up and running here at the HLATC. Hooray! I will get right to sharing the fun photos of our move days with you. First up, the moving of the rolled textiles.



The oversized rolls, covered in tyvek, were removed from their wooden racks and were carefully secured on the moving truck individually. Thankfully, this did not represent the majority of our rolled textiles. Most were able to be moved in groups within their storage racks. The tubes were secured onto the racks (as you've seen illustrated in earlier posts) and the full racks were inserted into custom made, covered moving carts, which were then secured on the truck.



Those carts were then moved over to our new space and the emptied into the custom built temporary racking system while waiting for the cabinets to be brought over.



Bringing the cabinets over is where things got interesting. We're not sure how the cabinets made it into our tiny storage space many years ago, but it was fairly evident that they weren't coming out through the usual door we use to access the space. The door into our storage area had a tight turn to get out and there was no chance the cabinets were going to be able to make that turn.

So once the room was entirely emptied of textiles, we came to what we'd been excitedly planning for: the day we knock the wall down. In reality, it ended up being the day the UW Physical Plant staff cuts out the door frame, which wasn't quite as exciting and dramatic, but much cleaner and less disruptive.



Our storage space had in fact been three separate rooms at some point in the building's past and those additional doorways remained in the hallways. Once the space became HLATC textile storage, those doors directly into the hallway were locked and blocked off by cabinets. It turns out, we just needed to widen one of those doorways just a little bit and the oversized cabinets could make it through.



And down the stairs it goes!



Once our metal cabinets were also carefully maneuvered out of the building and installed at the new storage space, the regular rolled textile racks were then taken out of the temporary shelving and placed back in their metal cabinets.

Mission Accomplished

We did it! The Helen Louise Allen Textile Collection relocation has been completed. So many people worked so hard on this project and I just want to say thank you thank you thank you for everyone's help. We couldn't have done it without you.

Blueprint Fine Art Services did a beautiful job crating and boxing our oversized pieces. The force behind the relocation, C. Coakley, did a great job and were an absolute pleasure to work with. Rich Reinke, Coakley's on-site leader for our move, was integral to the relocation going as smoothly as it did and he without a doubt deserves a round of applause. Particularly for maintaining a positive attitude for weeks on end!

I suppose I should also say thanks to mother nature for limiting the blizzards to non-move days. You've got to love these midwestern winters!

I will have many more photos of the move process as well as our new spaces just as soon as I find the box I packed the flash card reader into...

Rolled Textiles

As you can tell from my less frequent posts, things are really getting busy around here! Prep work has begun for moving approximately 1,500 rolled textiles that are currently stored within cabinets. Here you can see Rich and Matt from C. Coakley working in storage.




The plan is to secure all of the rolled pieces onto their current storage racks and move the racks intact. First, those red plastic caps are inserted into the ends of the rods, eliminating the little bit of space between the rod and the bracket, so now it fits very snugly. Cable ties then secure the rod onto its brackets and the brackets onto the frame.



There are also "bumpers" being created from archival storage tubes cut to specific sizes. Those will be placed between the rolled textiles and the ends of the rod, eliminating any horizontal movement of the textiles. The racks will then be slid onto custom created rolling carts for transport. Once the cabinets are reinstalled into our new storage space, the racks will slide right back into their cabinets. Pretty creative, eh?

End of summer days

Left to right: Diana, Aurelia, Tara, Laura, Maggie

As a little thank you for all their hard work this summer, the packing team went out for a treat this week. The weather outside was perfect, so we walked up to the Babcock Dairy store for some ice cream. We followed that with a leisurely stroll through the beautiful Allen Centennial Gardens. Where some of us, namely me, marveled at how much nicer the Allen's vegetable gardens are than our own.


Left to right: Laura, Aurelia, Maggie, Maya, Tara

Unbelievably, summer is just about over and today is our last day with Aurelia. Secretly, we're trying to keep our jealousy in check as she heads off to the French countryside for a year! She will be diligently working the entire time though, as she always does. We're really going to miss her and wish her the best of luck.

Team Tyvek

A huge thank you goes out again to the Tyvek Team (left to right): Barb Tensfeldt, Judy Sidran, Barb Borders, Chris Motl, Teddy Zehner and HLATC staffer Maggie Ordon. Our tireless volunteers have been busy cutting and sewing tyvek sleeves for all of the HLATC's oversized rolled textiles. So far, they have created over 200 sleeves. No easy task and we definitely couldn't have done it without them!

Supersized

The HLATC has hundreds of oversized rolled textiles meaning either the length or the diameter of the rolled piece is too large to fit onto the rods within our textile storage cabinets. It also means there is no chance they will fit into boxes, leaving us with the conundrum of how do we pack an oversized rolled piece? Tyvek to the rescue! We are creating custom sleeves out of tyvek that we slip over each rolled textile to protect it while in transport and during short term storage. Tyvek is water resistant but has "micropores" which allow for breathability, making it a better option than polyethylene sheeting.

The length and diameter of all of the rolled pieces was measured and entered into a working spreadsheet. Grouping the pieces by length gives us the largest scraps of tyvek which we then use to create sleeves for smaller pieces. A note on tyvek, it really does come in different forms. If you are looking for a soft, almost fabric-like tyvek, I would highly recommend the product from Gaylord Archival Products. When they say it drapes, they mean it. I first tried a different supplier and the tyvek was much more rigid, like a paper. I'm sure it's great for other uses, but didn't really do what we needed it to.

We have a tiny staff and sewing these sleeves would not have been possible without our dear volunteers. They have truly been an invaluable resource. Judy Sidran and Barb Tensfeldt, two members of the HLATC development committee, are photographed here in action.


Judy Sidran and Maggie Ordon (manning the spreadsheet and calculator)


Barb Tensfeldt

After cutting the tyvek out here at HLATC, Judy and Barb are able to take the tyvek pieces home and sew them up whenever is convenient for them. They drop off their latest batch of sewn sleeves when they come to cut out new ones.



A giant thank you goes out to Judy and Barb for all of their help!

Teamwork

It seems fitting for my first post to introduce some of the major players in our big packing project. It really takes a lot of teamwork to get something this big accomplished and we've been really lucky to work with some great people.

We owe a huge thank you to Leah and Natalie, who were here with us to kick off the packing project. They worked tirelessly throughout the spring semester, dutifully completing any task assigned to them, even the meticulous vacuuming. And with a smile.

Natalie


Leah

And best of luck to Leah, who graduated this May, as she moves on to bigger and better things!

Our packing team this summer includes two new faces, Aurelia and Laura, who will be working alongside two HLATC veterans, Tara and Maggie. Stop back in to see how our summer progresses!



Aurelia


Laura


Tara


Maggie


Diana