Most of the time you find them on eBay and Etsy, really. That's where a great deal of my collection has been bought from.

That's great. I feel, however, that the importance of the original textiles on these parasols shouldn't be underestimated. To replace some of these irreplaceable silks would go against my principles that these are also historical objects, and these elaborately woven silks that are no longer manufactured are just as important historically as the dresses that many fashion historians admire in museum collections. Conservation would be the best route for those objects, which is unfortunately out of my reach financially, so I let them be for the future conservator. I would rather allow the right treatment for that object be possible in the future than to make the wrong move with it in haste.

Leave it alone! I have covers that have big splits in them but I'll not mess with them because I cannot find silk to replace it for love nor money. My goal is not to use these original pieces, but to preserve them.

It's personal preference. If you want to work with a new frame, great. The purpose of this video was not to encourage people to recover antique parasols. In fact, there are so many pieces people have approached me about over the years I've actually advised against recovering. People do not go into a museum and look at its garments that are professionally conserved, and tell them that it's faded or ripped, so they should make a new skirt, or a new garment, taking a pattern from the original, its guts pressed flat - why should something adjacent to that dress - an accessory, like a parasol, be any different with one's approach? It's why care has to be taken into buying choices. I do not buy to simply recover and "have something pretty." I buy because I love these objects, and I restore them when they are in desperate need, as the examples of my work I used in this video can attest. This is why I'm starting to step away from taking client commissions, because I've had prospective clients approach me about pieces that I'd rather not recover. It's about knowing when to take that step, and when it's best to leave it as-is. As I suggested in the video, the ones that are best candidates are those that have fabrics remaining on them that can still have equivalent modern-day fabrics acquired to replace the shredded original (One exception can be made, if, the original material is not exemplary, and the frame can be recovered in a style appropriate to that piece, IE can be identified as having been used on identical or extremely similar style parasol frames in the same period. This is why things like having a visual source file are important with these, because then you develop an eye for what looks 'right' for a particular frame.) Work with a new frame, by all means. I'm not going to judge. If you're scared of handling an antique, then don't do it, because that also means you'll not be able to handle it properly. Once you're comfortable handling something like that, then you'll feel more confident in what you're doing with it.

@@brandonmckinney3880 I completely agree, I'd rather leave handing antique objects to an expert, cause I love them too much and would be scared to do something wrong. Intresting video!