Remember this woodpecker, that the Lego Scientists were admiring in 2015? It came into the @ColeZoology lab recently, for a spot of tlc. 1/4 https://t.co/5J6Szv3ZMG
— Claire Smith (@wetconservatrix) July 22, 2019
Category: volunteering
Chameleon and her eggs
Things In Jars!
Preparing for display
Spirit Collections Care
What I do when I’m not sewing…
You might have noticed that I’ve been doing an awful lot less sewing than I used to. That’s because I’ve been preparing to go back to University in September to start an MA in History. To get the fibromyalgia used to the idea of actually Leaving The House And Doing Things, I’ve been doing some volunteering with the University’s museums and collections.
I’ve been away from the Cole Museum of Zoology for about four years. Firstly I took a job which clashed with the time allocated for volunteering, and secondly that job ended up making me so ridiculously ill that it’s taken me almost two years to recover from it. But! I recently made it back to the museum, and to be quite honest, sitting down with a bench full of spirit specimens in front of me just felt like home. I’d really missed it, and it’s so good to be back.
I’ve been volunteering at the Herbarium since last October. I’ve mostly been working on one project, the Cyclamen Society collection, helping to prepare it to be added to the University’s cataloguing system.
Occasionally I get to do other things too. Last week I had a lovely time looking through the collection for very specific specimens, all relating to gin! July 8th was World Gin Day, and Alastair and I wrote a blog post all about botanicals.
I also wrote a Twitter thread about some interesting coriander specimens – something I also got to do for Museums Week. The theme of the day was “rainbow”, so I wrote about colour retention in the cyclamen specimens, historical hair colours (don’t do it, folks!), and plant-based textile dyes.
I’ve also been taking full advantage of the University’s Special Collections, and getting a bit of a head start on my MA dissertation research. I recently requested two agricultural books, printed in 1585 and 1614. One of them was in absolutely immaculate condition… and the other one was very clearly a well-used working book!
I’ve written a post about them on my second Patreon blog, Mrs Magpie Writes. (My first Patreon is for Miss Mouse.) My next task is actually to re-write pretty much all of the information about that Patreon project, as I set it up before I decided to go back to University, and I’m no longer doing, well, any of the things it says I’m going to do. Oops.
So, this is a bit of a heads up to say that I’m going to be blogging about all sorts of different things from now on! There’ll be a bit of history, a bit of museums, and I might occasionally still manage to sneak the odd little bit of sewing in from time to time.
Gerard’s Herbal and an exciting email
When I went in to the University Herbarium last week, I was extremely excited to discover that one of my fellow volunteers had very kindly brought in her incredibly beautiful first edition of Gerard’s Herbal, published in 1597. It’s been re-bound at some stage, and it’s absolutely immaculate. The paper is of variable quality, but the pages show hardly any signs of wear at all, which is incredible for a book that’s more than four hundred years old!
I’d been looking at a digital copy earlier in the week, as well as my own facsimile copy of a later edition, because I’d been writing a blog post about making glue from bluebells. (It was released on the 4th for Patrons, and is available to everyone today.)
I’m incredibly grateful for digital collections such as Archive.org, because they allow me to see the content of original texts and get stuck into some research even on the days when I’m too poorly to get out of bed, never mind venture out to visit an archive. There really is nothing quite as exciting as seeing the real thing though!
For example, I didn’t know that Gerard’s Herbal included “A Table of the Natures, Vertue and Dangers“, because it isn’t part of my facsimile copy of the third edition. Now that I know about it, I can make plans to look up specific illnesses (some of them described in rather alarming detail!) and see which plants are recommended and how they should be used.
As if the afternoon wasn’t exciting enough, I checked my email and discovered that I’ve been offered an unconditional place on the History MA!
This might be the most ridiculous thing I’ve tried to do since I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia back in 2012 (well, okay, after the swordfighting!), but I can’t tell you how much I’m looking forward to it. Everybody I spoke to while I was in the process of applying agreed that part-time would be the best approach. Not only does it give my unreliable health as much recovery time as possible, it also allows me to actually enjoy the individual modules rather than rushing through them – not to mention giving me an extra year to fine tune the details of my PhD proposal, if that turns out to be the path I want to take.
I still have a couple of sewing and knitting projects for friends and family on the go (all delayed by my health having leapt out at me recently), but as soon as those are finished I’m going to be hitting the books and spending as much time as possible studying before I start the course. It’s twenty-two years since I graduated from my BA(Hons), so I need to make sure I can still remember how to write academic essays as well as informal blog posts. I just can’t wait to get started!
Floral fabric and vintage knickers
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
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.