Category: museums

Doppelganger Day!

Today was #AskACurator day on Twitter, which has had the museum world buzzing about all sorts of interesting things.

The two lovely ladies above are from the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, and one of my colleagues noticed that the lady on the left bears a striking resemblance to me!

So, to my great amusement, a matching picture was taken of me, to tweet in reply:

(We flipped it round so that I’d match the Rijksmuseum photo.)

One of my friends has just suggested an exchange programme… it’s been a very long time since I last went to Amsterdam, perhaps we should try and arrange it!

Snowed under at work…

MERL Garden

Not literally, thank goodness, although this is a picture of the garden at work when it was very frosty just before Christmas! But there have been a lot of changes going on, which has meant a lot of meetings, which has meant going into work on my days off, which has added up to nothing getting done! And this week’s half term, so I’m working extra days for that, so nothing’s going to get done until next week now.

Shortly after that I start a new shift pattern, which doubles the hours of one of my roles, and means working half days and different days each week. All very confusing at the moment, but all we can do is see how it all settles down in time. The best part about this change is that I no longer have to work every weekend, just one in four! So I’ll be able to spend some time with my husband again, and we can hopefully start taking our cameras out and about.

All this is a very long-winded way of saying that I have no idea when I’ll next be able to sit down at the computer and write something, but I hope it won’t be too long!

Floral fabric and vintage knickers

1980s underwear

I had intended to spend this morning sewing, but the temperature in the Shed soon put paid to that. It took an hour and a half for the little heater to force its way into double figures. Brrr! I think this is perhaps the only disadvantage of working in a Shed in the garden – it’s blooming cold when it snows!

By the time I’d spent half the morning sending work-related emails (on a day when I’m not at work, more fool me), it seemed pointless to start something when I have to go out this afternoon to catalogue some more beetles.

So, here are my latest bargains from the weekend!

The fabric is a £3.49/m cotton from Fabric Land, and it’s creased because it’s been through a 60° wash and the tumble dryer. This is a much harsher treatment than it’s ever going to receive once it’s a dress, so I can be confident that it won’t shrink or otherwise misbehave in the wash once I’ve spent ages making it. Paul mumbled something about cushions when I showed it to him. Rude.

The pattern was a bargain from my local Sue Ryder shop, in the centre of Reading, which has a large Retro and Vintage section that I love to bits. I’m not sure whether 1988 (the date of this pattern) counts as either Retro or Vintage, but it was 25 years ago… which certainly makes me feel old!

Anyway, the pattern only cost £2, and although some of it’s been cut up and sellotaped back together (argh!), the part that I really wanted is still intact. That’s the two different styles of french knickers, which I plan to make both in printed cotton and in bamboo. The pattern’s a size too small for me, but I plan to cheat it by sewing with smaller seam allowances.

I wonder whether I actually do have time to run up a quick pair now, before I go off to my beetles…?

Claire the Conservatrix

Little starfish

Aren’t these little starfish adorable? Pictured larger-than-life, they’re actually about the size of a 10p piece. So cute!

And in case you’re wondering what a jar full of preserved starfish are doing on a crafty blog… well, they won’t be here for much longer. You know I volunteer at the Cole Museum of Zoology? And I’m hoping to train in the conservation of natural history objects? Well, I thought it was about time that those subjects had a little blog of their own.

So, here it is:

claire the conservatrix
adventures in natural history conservation

 

I’m going on a course in London next week, learning more about the preservation of specimens in spirit, like these starfish. I’ve also applied for a voluntary position at another local museum, cataloguing beetles, so fingers crossed for that.

It would be lovely to get some discussion going on at the new blog, so please feel free to follow me. However, I’m aware that many people find pictures of wobbly things in jars a bit unpleasant, so there’ll be no hard feelings if you’d rather not look!

 

I will, of course, still be updating here with all of the things that I make. My extra hours at work finish at the end of this week, so once I’m back from the conservation course, I can get on with making a few things!

Working 9-5…

…what a way to make a living!

This photo crossed my path at work this week, which rather took me by surprise! It was taken earlier this year, when I was volunteering at the Cole Museum of Zoology. I’m very carefully cleaning one of the many bullfrog skeletons. I’m going back to the Cole Museum next week, to continue volunteering, and I’m really looking forward to it.

I’ve been volunteering and working in museums now since 2009, and my intention was to get involved in as many different areas as possible, to work out where I wanted to specialise. Most of my work has been in education, with a little foray into marketing, which I really enjoy.

In the long term though, I’m now hoping to train as a conservator, specialising in natural history objects. There’s no straighforward qualification route for this, so I’m trying to gain as much experience as I can by volunteering, and by taking short courses as they come up. In December I’ll be learning about the care of fluid-preserved collections, at the Horniman Museum. I’m also trying to raise the funds to study an MA in Preventive Conservation.

So, if you’ve been wondering why there haven’t been as many making things posts around here as usual, the answer is that I’ve been at work! I took on some extra hours during the summer, and those hours have now been extended for a while longer, so I’m saving all the extra pennies towards the fees for the MA.

I’m also trying to decide whether to blog about SCIENCE THINGS here, or whether to write about them somewhere different. I will be required to keep a blog as part of the MA, but I’m aware that some of you really don’t like to see wobbly things in jars (which is the area I’m hoping to specialise in), and I don’t want to frighten anybody away! Your feedback on this would be very welcome.

Natural History Museum: Animal Inside Out

Greyface Dartmoor Sheep at the Natural History Museum

This sheep is a Dartmoor Greyface. He is here to lull you into a false sense of security, because all the photos below this one are going to be of wobbly things in jars. If you don’t like wobbly things in jars, I suggest you just look at this lovely sheep for a bit. He lives at the Natural History Museum, in their Wildlife Garden. He had a couple of friends, and he seemed very happy there, grazing away on the meadow.

I went to the Natural History Museum to catch the Animal Inside Out exhibition before it closed. Paul declined to come with me on the grounds that he’s too squeamish, but given that it was full of excited three-year-olds yelling “look mummy, you can see all that squid’s insides!!”, I think he would have probably coped. Although some of you will no doubt be pleased to know that there was no photography allowed inside!

I felt that the exhibition was slightly on the small and under-explained side, although I don’t know what I would suggest to improve it. More detail on the actual plastination process, perhaps, which was described in just one paragraph. The exhibits themselves though were absolutely amazing. The delicacy of an entire animal comprised solely of its own blood vessels was stunning.

Many of the more robust pieces were on open display, so you could go right up to them and look really closely. Somehow the texture of the plastinated creatures gave them a somewhat “fake” quality, so you could easily believe that you were looking at very detailed models. I found that a tiny bit disappointing somehow, but then I’m the woman who likes a good old-fashioned spirit-and-taxidermy collection, so maybe it was simply all a bit too modern for my liking!

Spirit Collection at the Natural History Museum

After I’d had a good look around the exhibition a couple of times, I wandered over to the Darwin Centre to find out whether the Spirit Collection Tours were happening this week. Sadly they weren’t, so I contented myself with pointing my camera through the windows. Hence the fuzziness of the picture above. But look! Lizards!

Spirit Collection at the Natural History Museum

This is a fish, otherwise unlabelled. I don’t know what it’s been treated with to make it green, but it’s absolutely beautiful.

Spirit Collection at the Natural History Museum

This is a Lesser Vampire Bat. Isn’t he adorable? Preserving mammals in formalin or methylated spirits tends to cause them to lose their colour over time, so they often turn either orange or white.

Spirit Collection at the Natural History Museum

And this is an octopus. Please excuse the reflections on the glass, it’s hard to get rid of them when you’re taking a photo of an animal through a display case and a jar.

At this point I had to dash back to Paddington to catch the last off-peak fast train of the afternoon, so I didn’t really look at the rest of the museum. Next time I’ll get out of bed a bit earlier – there must still be corners of the place that I haven’t discovered yet!

London Trip

British Library

This must be the most-photographed view of the new British Library. But it was such a beautiful day, and the building looked so striking against the clear blue sky, that I just couldn’t resist. I went to see the Royal Manuscripts exhibition which was very beautiful, but very busy. I got a bit tired of having to peep over other people’s shoulders, so I left after about an hour and went up to the Treasures of the British Library gallery instead. Much cooler, much quieter, and still full of beautiful things.

While I was there I wandered over to the conservation centre, where they have a little exhibition that I hadn’t seen. I was surprised to find that I actually knew almost everything the exhibition had to show me. I always feel as though there’s more I can learn about almost everything, so sometimes it takes me by surprise to discover that I already know more than I think!

Happy Birthday!

In the afternoon I met up with a friend who’d been in a meeting just around the corner from the Grant Museum. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to go in again, and was excited to discover that we’d arrived on their birthday! Yes, we did sign the card and fill in the quiz. Jo loved the museum – although frankly who wouldn’t love a place with a skeleton in a party hat?

Pulmonary Vein

I had every intention of taking lots of artistic photos, but Jo and I were so busy going around pointing at exciting things that I failed miserably. I did like this one though – another ingenious bit of labelling on an elephant’s heart.

Manatee Socks!

As if Jo wasn’t already excited enough about the preserved infant manatee, she was thrilled to bits when I gave her a gift of manatee socks! The manatee looks suitably impressed, I think. Probably jealous. Jo’s going to visit manatees in Singapore soon, as well as meeting orangutans in Borneo. Now I’m jealous!

Walking home

Despite leaving London just after 5, it was getting dark by the time I walked home from the station. The lake was misty as the sun set, so I took the opportunity to snap a picture. Quite a contrast to the blue sky over London!

Grant Museum of Zoology

Grant Museum of Zoology, UCL

Somebody at the Grant Museum of Zoology definitely has a sense of humour. These four skeletons are perfectly placed to watch over the whole museum from their vantage point in the first floor gallery!

Those of a sensitive disposition should probably look away now, because the Grant Museum is filled with skeletons and things in jars. And when I say “filled”, I really mean it. I was reminded a little of the displays at Pitt Rivers, where the museum is as much about the origins of the collection itself as the individual objects in it.

Grant Museum of Zoology, UCL

There’s a whole cabinet full of brains from different animals, so that you can compare and contrast them. I just love the way the parts have been labelled with little slips of paper stuck directly into the specimen. This one is

Brain of “Dog” in median section to show the main convolutions and sulci.

(Sulci: pl. depression or fissure in the surface of the brain. The bumpy bits are gyri.)

Grant Museum of Zoology, UCL

I didn’t make a note of exactly which species this is, but it reminded me of Skycarrots‘ beautifully delicate photograms of Mermaids’ Purses that she found on the beach. When you find these washed up they’ve usually already hatched, so I find it really exciting to be able to see one from the inside.

The museum’s currently open Monday-Friday, 1-5pm. I didn’t stay long because I was on a trip to UCL with work, so I’m going again on Monday. This time with a better camera, and a friend who wants to see the baby manatee!

(Yes, this does mean there’ll be more pictures. Sorry, Lettice!)

Vaguely Victorian: Part Two

Victorian-ish outfit

Here you go – for those who were wondering, this is what the vaguely Victorian outfit looked like at the end of a long day, in a lovely Victorian staircase hall.

Contrary to a few people’s concerns, I did not boil to death with so many layers of clothes on. The skirt was quite heavy, but the bustle was so comfortable I kept forgetting I was wearing it and trying to squeeze through spaces that were impossible to negotiate with such an enormous bottom!

At the end of the day I also learned that it is possible to run for the bus in a corset and bustle – although I wouldn’t recommend it! In fact it’s not the ideal outfit for bus travel generally. You can’t get upstairs, for a start, and I was a bit worried that the driver would ask me to buy two tickets for taking up so much room!

I must admit that, without the complicated underpinnings, I’d actually quite happily wear this outfit (or something very similar) to work on any old not-particularly-Victorian day.

Vaguely Victorian

I’ve been asked to work an extra day this week to help out with a school visit, for which I may have heard myself ask my boss “would you like me to come in dressed as a Victorian?”. The session goes with the Victorian part of our building, Palmer House, which was designed by Waterhouse (of Natural History Museum and Reading Town Hall fame) and built in 1880-82.

Paul, bless him, has managed to rein me in from “I NEED TO MAKE A COMPLETE PERIOD-CORRECT VICTORIAN OUTFIT BY TUESDAY” to “please can we have a look in your wardrobe first”.

Victorian-ish outfit

However, I may have used “dressing up as a Victorian for work” as an excuse to buy a corset. I chose a black brocade one which was on the “corset of the day” offer for £25. It ended up costing me almost £40 by the time I’d paid vat and extra for super-fast shipping, but I still call that a bargain. It’s not expertly made, but it’s no worse than any Vollers corset I’ve owned in the past, and it gives a “Victorian enough” shape under all those layers, so I’m happy with that.

The website was a bit weird – I kept finding other people’s things added to my shopping cart and at one point it kept telling me that I was logged in as somebody else, which made me very nervous about giving them my credit card details. But I placed my order at five to three on Friday, 3pm being the cut off for next day delivery, expecting it to arrive on Monday. The postman knocked on the door at 9:30 on Saturday morning, with my corset! So that was extremely impressive. (He also brought my lingerie-sewing book which I thought had got lost in the trans-atlantic post, so hooray for that too!)

Victorian-ish outfit

I posted on Facebook about making a Victorian outfit in a hurry, and Chris from Progress Theatre offered to lend me a bustle pad from their wardrobe. I replaced the worn-out elastic with cotton tape, and I think it’ll make quite an acceptable late-Victorian silhouette.

Victorian-ish outfit

Next I added my lilac petticoat, for volume, and a plain white vest to cover up the black dress and corset. I went for black foundation layers because I’d originally intended to wear a black blouse, but the two I thought might be suitable turned out to have inappropriate sleeves.

Victorian-ish outfit

Here’s a side view with the bustle. Is my bum going to look big in this? 😉

Victorian-ish outfit

Next layer: the ivory lawn pintucked blouse that I usually wear for being a rural Edwardian when I’m out with the clog dancers.

Victorian-ish outfit

I spent all day making this skirt, but unfortunately velvet doesn’t photograph at all well in poor light so I can’t show it to you properly. It’s Simplicity 2207, the same as my red and black stripy one.

Victorian-ish outfit

And for the finishing touches: a black wool man’s dress waistcoat, a length of black ribbon, and a marcasite brooch in the shape of an owl. I wear this waistcoat to work quite often, usually with the owl on the lapel.

Victorian-ish outfit

I must admit that I’m not completely convinced by the bustle, even though it’s much smaller with the weight of the velvet skirt on the top. I was looking at photographs of Victorian teachers and the more I see the less I’m convinced that a bustle, even a small one, was worn underneath everyday workwear.

I’ll try the whole outfit on together, and hopefully I’ll be able to get some better photos while I’m at work tomorrow. I can’t do much about my extremely un-Victorian hair and glasses, sadly, but I think this is not too bad, considering I had almost all of it lurking in my wardrobe already!