 |
| Here I am using the hot knife to cut a half-sphere into ethafoam Photo Courtesy of {Sarah Sutton} |
This week was a busy week full of writing, creating, and
meetings. There was a lot of discussion about the purpose of museums in today's
world and the place of the CHF Museum in all of that. I spent quite a bit of
time sitting in on meetings about the upcoming exhibit and listening to the
design team work through their ideas. They talked about topics ranging from
what it means to show garments on a mannequin and the representation of the
human body, and how visitors move through a space and understand the flow of
the show. Having the opportunity to sit in on meetings about so many different
aspects of a museum team has really helped me to understand what it takes to
create an exhibit from a simple idea. The meeting that was the most inspiring
to me this week was the monthly all-staff meeting. This meeting is for all of
the staff members from every department at the CHF to come together and give
updates and discuss things that affect all departments. This was a great
meeting because it showed me how happy the employees are at the CHF. If you
create a work environment that is rewarding and challenging at the same time,
the workers will come together and rally around the organization. That is
exactly what I saw at the all-staff meeting. The meeting began with announcing
the work-anniversaries of numerous employees - three years at CHF, 5 years, 10
years! It really boosted moral to see everyone clapping and cheering for their
co-workers who had reached a new milestone at the CHF. It's like Google in
here!
 |
| This is the all-staff meeting, and only half of the room! Museum Director, Erin McLeary, is giving the museum-team report. Photo Courtesy of {Sarah Sutton} |
 |
| These are the dividers that Stephanie made Photo Courtesy of {Sarah Sutton} |
In other news, I also completed working on the Syntex/Syva
collection this week. After accessioning and marking each of the objects, I then
had to pack them for the storage room. This meant working with Stephanie to
create customized storage boxes with dividers for each object. Properly packing
objects is important for the preservation of the object and it provides long-term,
cost effective, support and protection. Properly packed storage boxes provide
insulation for the museum objects, shock protection when moved, and protection
from moisture and changes in temperature/humidity. We used blue-board boxes
from Gaylord, acid-free tissue paper, and ethafoam. I was able to use a
hot-knife for the first time to cut the ethafoam into a perfect cradle for a
ceramic sphere. A hot knife is a knife which plugs into an outlet to heat up.
There are different attachments which can be switched out depending on how
large or small of design you need to cut into foam. The heat of the knife is
adjustable, and you can pull a trigger to make the knife vibrate. This allows
the knife to slice through hard foam like butter - this makes it easier to
sculpt small designs for tiny objects or intricate glassware.
 |
| These are the dividers that I made, holding part of the collection that I processed. It may look simple, but creating your own dividers is a lot of work! Photo Courtesy of {Sarah Sutton} |
Some materials that are not recommended for packing objects
are newspaper, which can bleed ink and becomes very acidic, cotton balls, used
fruit crates, and pressure-sensitive tapes like scotch tape and masking tape.
It is also a poor choice to use woolen materials due to the increased risk of
pests. Dyed textiles can also bleed ink, and could cause a reaction between
certain chemicals. There are many
different packing materials which can be harmful to collections, and the list
could go on for far too long. It was fun to practice packing objects and making
my own dividers. Although in many cases the museum will have pre-made dividers,
it was good to have the chance to learn to make my own and to use the hot
knife. I look forward to putting my crafting
skills to use in the future!
 |
| Here I am using the hot knife again Photo Courtesy of {Sarah Sutton} |
Comments
Post a Comment