Read on Twitter
Did you enjoy our first Icon Book & Paper Social Media Exhibition yesterday? #IconEx21 Ready for today?
The second speaker is Abigail Bainbridge ACR @BainbridgeCons, our very own Chair. If you’re into museums and have a soft spot for children, this exhibition cannot be missed!
The second speaker is Abigail Bainbridge ACR @BainbridgeCons, our very own Chair. If you’re into museums and have a soft spot for children, this exhibition cannot be missed!
“In the spring” (we all know that means spring/summer/maybe next year) my husband/business partner Tristram is going to build me a new studio where the shed currently lives. It’ll be like this but less white.
First he is making a new shed to put all the stuff from the old shed. He’s digging it down (by hand!) so it has more vertical storage. Of course winter is the most fun time to dig in London because the soil is constantly wet. And it’s great because our son always wants to “help”.
Tristram is now about a welly deep into the ground and has hit some bricks. I’ve come across the same elsewhere while gardening. He then discovered this old map in the internet. In 19th c this area was a much bigger house’s much bigger garden and there were glasshouses here.
He also found some sherds and other bits. These are common finds in London gardens but we don’t normally
have the occasion to find so many and we are not normally desperate for activities to entertain our twin
four-year-olds. I turned it into a museology home preschool lesson.
have the occasion to find so many and we are not normally desperate for activities to entertain our twin
four-year-olds. I turned it into a museology home preschool lesson.
So first we cleaned them, noticing that some sherds fit together. Then we called in the experts: Tiago Oliveira (ceramics conservator at TO Conservation) for ID & help repairing the sherds, then their aunt @KitKatPortrait (curator at
@NPGLondon) for help making an exhibition.
@NPGLondon) for help making an exhibition.
We loved learning about the ceramics with Tiago: he taught us how to identify bone china from earthenware (cue a lot of fun with Papa’s “torchlight”), and that the rust-coloured stain on one sherd could be from a piece of metal or metal in the soil drawn into the porous body.
We discussed Icon standards & agreed that while this is outside our specialism and we'd never do this on a “real” object, it would be ok for this to attempt the bonding ourselves. Then we admired our work and had a snack.
So then we had to figure out how to display them. We got out some magnet tiles to mock up some options. We also discussed a name for our exhibition and settled on “Things we found in the ground” because we are very interested in rhyming right now.
We had discussed with Aunt Sarah how the finds might be arranged; she explained that in her curating she finds a story that her paintings can tell together. My daughter said that her brain wasn’t telling her body any stories though, so we went with mostly random/what looked good.
And here it is, our mini exhibition. Tristram and I built a display cabinet and the kids painstakingly wrote out
the "interpretation." I was going to put it in my new studio, to come full circle, but the kids have claimed it for their bedroom. Curators' audio tour coming up next.
the "interpretation." I was going to put it in my new studio, to come full circle, but the kids have claimed it for their bedroom. Curators' audio tour coming up next.
