THE HERBERT

Okay so another perk of the new job was to go on the staff away day to The Herbert Museum and Art Gallery in Coventry on Wednesday.

It was an action packed day with talks from the curatorial team, a tour of the galleries, lunch outside the cathedral (its so nice that its warm enough to picnic again!!!) tours of the museum stores, very impressive roller racking systems down there and tres expensive environmental controlling!! then the rest of the afternoon was spent exploring the galleries in our own time.

I particularly enjoyed experiencing La  Bouche  Du  Roi:  An  Artwork  By  Romuald  Hazoume.

According to the British museum ' The artwork comprises 304 plastic petrol can 'masks' arranged in the shape of a slave ship. Each mask represents a living person with a name, a voice and beliefs'. 

It was the audio that really struck me, the sound of singing and wailing made the exhibition feel that extra human.

MORE PICS OF SHUGBOROUGH

I thought I'd add a few more pics of my beautiful workplace

To the left here you can see the midden yard where the upstairs windows are to our museum stores - In there are about 23000 objects i think from a wicker coffin and huge old fashioned cameras to a 1930's pram and old war artefacts - not to mention the costume stores and the engine shed where there is a enormous old wooden carraige hearse

Above right is a pic of the ruin, its really beautiful and used to be alot bigger but this is all that is left.  Below is a closer up pic of the statue on top of the ruin - he's a very contemplative chappy. I spent a day photographing the monuments around the estate for an educational resource. I love my job!!

Balloon Sculptures

I've decided today is going to be an arty day i want to make some more of my balloon sculptures i havn't made any for quite a few years now so its time to resurrect the glue gun!! If the little fella is going to help I'd better rummage around in my tool box and find my safety glasses because they can be a little explosive! haha I'll post the results later but here's an example for now

OVER SHOES

I thought I'd find a pic to show you what I meant when I was talking about Over Shoes

The example here is similar to the one I found in our stores at the museum but this image is of a childs over-shoe and is a little more chunky - our version belonging to a lady is much more delicate and feminine.

ARTS AND MUSEUMS TRAINEE

Well! having been made redundant the cloud definately had a silver lining! - I am the arts and museums trainee at Staffordshire County Council.

Working at the County Museum at Shugborough and the Shire Hall Gallery, Stafford in the near future.

Shugborough is gorgeous here is some of the scenery I have to pass everyday on foot, just to get to the offices.

The Chinese House at Shugborough
The Tower of the Winds and The Fountain with the Ruin in the background

So far I've helped put together a touring exhibition that opened at the Chasewater Innovation Centre on Tuesday - This involved going through hundreds of objects in the museum's collection to find interesting objects for a display on sustainable travel - no mean feat to make travel sexy!! 

My favourite object I found was a tiny little 19th century leather Over-Shoe that the well-to-do ladies would have slipped over their fine fabric shoes to keep them clean from the mud - just like olden day wellies!! 

My next project in the museum will be Colour in Costume. I'm thinking of going through the museum costume stores  and putting together an exhibition of non-white wedding dresses from 1800's to 1980's (this is when our current collection ends i think) We have some really beautiful examples its just too bad that being museum artefacts I don't get to try them on!!!