Tower Bridge

One of the bonuses of spending the week at the Tower of London is that it's right near a number of other landmarks. On Monday it was gray English weather, so my first look at Tower Bridge was certainly iconic.

I also had the opportunity to go walk across the bridge after I finished for the day on Wednesday.

And of course, you can admire it from the Tower itself. Thursday it was clear and sunny, so it was easy to spot.

Week Seven

This week was exciting- I had a change of scenery and got to spend most of my week at the Tower of London.

Specifically, I was in the Royal Fusiliers Museum, which looks like this.

Technically, the Fusiliers building is not owned by Historic Royal Palaces (who runs the Tower and Hampton Court) but we are helping the regiment re-do their museum. They received a big grant to completely change their small museum and it will be opening in April. I will be spending the next few weeks telling you about the costume mounting I get to do for them.

This week I did surface cleaning, which is a technical name for careful vacuuming, on most of the textile objects that will be going on display in the museum. For the most part, I worked with hats and the more modern uniforms that are going on display. I also assembled the four mannequins that the modern uniforms will be displayed on and tried them out to see if there were any problems... and I found some. One of the uniforms is way too small for the mount (so they will find a new one) and all of the museum artifact boots interfere with the mannequin’s leg mount. So the regiment will find us some new boots that can be cut up, which is the only way to show the mannequin wearing boots.

One of the unique aspects of my week was the room I worked in. The window is right next to the entrance of a tower, so members of the public could peek in and see the work I was doing.

Some tourists took photos of me. I even managed to wave to a shy little girl who was fascinated with me. And since it is half term break (their version of March break) it was very busy at the Tower.

Friday I had the pleasure of visiting the costume mounting department of the Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A) for my research project. For all the non-museum people reading my blog, this is a *huge* privilege because the V&A has the resources that most museums long for, so they get to put on some of the biggest exhibitions and have pioneered some new costume mounting techniques in the past few years. I can also say with some pride that they have adopted using rare-earth magnets to mount textiles, which is a practice that started being used in Canada (although it’s harder to get them in England- there’s no Lee Valley to buy them from). These tiny magnets are powerful enough to hold up textile artifacts with the added bonus that you don’t have to stitch the garment onto the costume mount, so in the end it’s a less invasive way to display it (but you can’t mount a garment using only magnets, some stitching is still required, but every little bit helps).

Overall, I would say it has been a very productive week.

Across the Street

Two Sundays ago (I know, I'm really behind on my blogging) I sat in a cafe eating lunch and knitting. At some point, I looked at the building across the street- I was looking at this.

This building was an art school at one point, but now it's been converted into shops on the lower level and businesses above.

What I liked was the interesting weathering on all of the sculptures.

Week Six... Sort Of

This past week was an odd one. My supervisor was enjoying a (much needed) vacation in Spain and the person who was to look after me was off sick most of the week. So I spent most of my time working on things that I've already told you about- my research project and Anne's counterpane. But that's old news, so instead I will show you this instead.

Yes. Spring flowers! My Canadian brain does not understand. It's February, a time when I am used to snow, ice, and more snow.

I am not trying to gloat or make any of you feel cold. I took these photos during my lunch on a rare sunny day. I actually miss snow because it brightens things up. Here it is gray... a lot.

But I'll take the flowers for now.

Canada Makes the News and Something Amazing at the Grocery Store

This appeared in the Comment (Editorial) section of London Evening Standard yesterday and I thought it was worth sharing. It is written by a man named Sebastian Shakespeare (if I was anywhere other than Britain, I would assume that's not his real name):

"Canada, your time has come

I used to think the only good thing to come out of Canda was my sister-in-law, a former speed skating chamption, and Leonard Cohen. And what a dour fellow he is. But it is undergoing a miraculous transformation. Witness the fuss this week at the Brits [the British Music Awards] surrounding Canada's latest musical export, Justin Bieber, which was followed by the news that Prince William and Kate are to make their first official trip as a married couple to Canada. I can't image the Aussies will be pleased. First they lose the Ashes, now they are relegated to second-tier status in the Commonwealth. How mortifying is that?

At last Canada, so long the Commonwealth underdog, has come of age. It also seems to be the only country in the world that hasn't been insulted by Top Gear's Jeremy Clarkson. Is that because he knows they won't get the joke?"

Really?

Speaking of Top Gear, I found this at the grocery store (I saw it two trips ago, but it was too busy to take a picture without having to explain to a dozen people what I was doing).

It's located next to the Disney cakes and right above the 'Stars of Chelsea Football' cake, if you're looking for it the next time you visit your local supermarket.

William III's Staircase

The staircase leading up to William III's wing is beautiful. It looks like this.

But what do I find interesting? This.

Graffiti, and lots of it, carved into the staircase. I like to think it was the work of a lot of bored soldiers guarding the king, but that's yet another story from my crazy imagination.

Week Five

I was a little busy this weekend getting a portfolio organized for a job application (which involved teaching the knob man at Fedex how US addresses work and why a museum would have a PO Box), which threw my usual schedule out the window. I'm just starting to catch up now, so you will have to excuse that I am only now updating you on last week.

It was a fairly oddball week. I worked on my research project, which is the beginning of a study on long-term costume mounts (aka: the mannequin paper). I’ve got most of the research done and now I’m e-mailing conservators at museums around the world to see if they will tell me about their mannequins. The results so far have been quite good and I’ve heard from more people that are strangers than people my supervisor or I actually know. The conservator at the Canadian Museum of Civilization gets top marks for spontaneously wanting to mail me a package about their mount making process- even though I don’t know her! I’ve also (hopefully) scored myself a short tour of the costume mounting department at the V&A (check my ‘Epic Museum of Stuff’ post for details how much I love that museum)!

 I also spent two days stitching a protective net overlay to the end of Queen Anne’s counterpane (which is called a bedspread to you and me). It’s part of one of the beds at Hampton Court; this one was made during 1714-1715 and is an intricate velvet design that has badly degraded with time. This treatment is high tech because instead of using plain net that is one colour (which is standard practice) Hampton Court has started using net that is digitally printed with the fabric’s pattern on it. This means that the pattern stays crisp (one colour net causes a hazy look) and helps enhance the motifs where they are badly degraded.

The reason this technique is so new is that it is very hard to manufacture, since it is very very very hard to keep a single image of the entire area to be treated printed on a thin piece of net without it going off-register somewhere. The counterpane area is small enough and only the central section of the end needs the netting, so the registration is not such a big deal. Two of the conservators have written a paper on the technique and will present it at an international conference later in the year. I’ve only heard of one other place that has attempted this treatment, so it is a pleasure to be working with it.

And I managed to work on the documentation from Bed Clean on Friday, which is what I was supposed to spend the entire week doing. So much for the best laid plans!

Tailoring Heaven

When I still had aspirations of being a fashion designer, tailoring was one of my favourite things and the trick of getting it right is all about subtly and details. Good tailoring is not flashy but when done correctly it make a person look put together. For this reason there was no way I could live in London without going to Savile Row. Located in a quiet area, Savile Row is home to the best tailoring shops in the UK. Many of the companies have been in business for over two hundred years and when royalty need a suit, they come to Savile Row. It is from this street that Prince William`s wedding uniform is being made.

I went with Jenn last Sunday when all the shops were closed and I could freak out without attracting too much attention. Okay, that`s not entirely true. The was one police man patrolling the area and every time I squealed with delight he got a bit closer, just in case. It took him about ten minutes to realize that I wasn`t going to break into any of the stores, I was just *that* excited about clothes, and then he backed off.

Many of the stores have their showrooms on the main floor and their workrooms in the basement. One of my favourites was Henry Poole & Co.

I found a few Anderson`s.

And this happened...

To explain to the non-CCM readers of this blog, that butterfly headband has been travelling around to all of my classmates as we complete our internships. We all have to take a picture that includes the headband and send the photo to one of our instructors. And no, we didn`t tell her that we were doing this. The photos just started showing up in her mailbox.

The reason I picked Anderson & Sheppard (other than the name) is this is where the late Alexander McQueen got his start in the fashion industry, learning the art of tailoring. He said that when sewing the interlinings into a jacket for the Price of Wales, he made sure to write profane graffiti inside. No one knows if that is true, but to find out you would have to completely rip the garment appart. It's an excellent story.

My Creepy Walk for Groceries

To some people, an abandoned factory or warehouse is an eyesore. To me, it's a piece of urban art. Regardless of your opinion, you have to admit that the building I pass by to go to Sainsbury's (the grocery store) is interesting.

I find portions of the fence that surround the building particularly interesting. It has this lush moss that seems to flourish on walls around London.

This site has been bought by Sainsbury's and the plan is to tear it down to build a huge new store (from the sounds of it, it will be as big as a Loblaw's back home). I'm happy I got to see it before it is gone- although I will admit the crows that live in it do make it rather creepy.

Week Four

This week was spent continuing the Bed Clean. This week we focused on King William III's state bed and spent most of the week working on it. We also looked at the furniture in the lower level of William's wing. I was glad to participate in it, but it was hard work. By the time I got home Friday night, I was an exhausted mess (I just curled up on my chair with my knitting, a cup of tea, and re-watched two episodes of Mad Men. The idea of even drawing a bath was too hard).

We had a rare sunny day on Thursday and I went for a walk in the gardens during my lunch. I still can't get over the view.

I've only explored a small section of the grounds; I haven't even found the maze yet. But I keep getting distracted.

I also ran into a flock of Canada geese. It was funny to run into them so far away from home.

A Post For Miss Little

I need to start off this post by explaining a few things. First of all, no, I will not be writing posts for everyone I know. I have just happened to see a few things in the past two weeks that remind me of my friend Sarah Little. No getting jealous.

For those of you who have not met my friend from school, here is what you need to know to understand this post. Firstly, Sarah loves metal conservation and the bigger it is, the better. It is one of my life’s goals to find a military tank for her to conserve (so if you have one lying around your backyard, let her know). Secondly, her Daddy works for Moosehead.

At Hampton Court there are two bronze statues in King William III’s Orangery (which is one of my favourite places in the palace, because it has this view).

The statues have lived in this space since it was completed and until a few years ago they sat on either end of the room. When degrading marble statues were brought from the gardens to the Orangery, the two bronze statues were moved to the middle of the room so everything looked balanced. One of the statues was very happy with this move. The other was not and she developed *bronze disease*! This is an inherent vice found in the metal and once it starts there really isn’t much you can do about it. You can only watch as this white crud forms on the surface.

How cool is that?

Okay, now the less conservation-nerdy part of this post. I walk by a wine/alcohol store by my tube station every day. Last week they changed their window display and now I walk by this bit of Canadiana.

But little did I know this was not my last Moosehead sighting for the week because sitting on the floor of the ‘Northeastern Woodlands’ display in the North America gallery of the British Museum was this.

No label. No explanation why a beer bottle was sitting in the middle of a display of native artifacts. I think someone left it there to amuse the Canadian tourists. Anyone else have any theories?

The British Museum Part Three

My final post on the British Museum (for now) is on a newer section of the museum. We stumbled upon the Enlightenment gallery by accident- all we wanted to do was get out of the Mexican gallery, which was absolutely freezing. It's housed in part of the old library and displays objects as they would have been seen in the museum's early existence (late 1700's, early 1800's). All of the objects shown were also acquired around that time period. Did I mention that old libraries are beautiful?

What I liked about this section is that you are intended to wander from case to case, in whatever order you like. The British Museum is an overwhelming place and having a mixed-bag exhibit acts as a breather for your brain. Don't get me wrong- there is plenty to learn from this space and it is organized, but it's just done in a different way than the rest of the museum.

I also like the eclectic mix. It's not often when you walk by a case of Islamic ceramic painted tiles and find yourself looking at this.

I don't know what I enjoy more- the foot itself or that it is named 'Colossal Foot' (it's from Naples and it's Roman). There was also a giant toe from a statue, but since it was in a case it didn't photo well.

The British Museum Part Two

I have no photos for specifically for this post, so instead you can look at this one of the main lobby of the museum.

As I said yesterday, I have always been interested in Ancient Egypt and I was lucky enough to see the temporary exhibit 'The Egyptian Book of the Dead'. It is quite impressive to visit a blockbuster exhibit where almost all of the objects on display are from the museum you are visiting- very few objects were loaned from other institutions. It was quite busy when we went and the start of the exhibition space is quite narrow, so traffic flow was a bit of a problem.

Overall I thought it was a good exhibit. It was interesting to see examples of burial rituals/ spells from different eras of Ancient Egypt and contrast the differences as practices changed over time. Some of my favourite pages were the less adorned pieces because they gave a tighter look. There was one example of a manuscript written on leather that also caught my eye. It was also as we wandered around that Jenn learned of my love for scarabs (I have a crush on the humble dung beetle, okay?). I pointed and may have squealed slightly every time I found one in the exhibit.  

I also had a look at the Egyptian galleries on the second floor (most of the sculpture, including the Rosetta Stone, are in the ground floor galleries). I have no photos because it was packed with people and at times I could barely move, never mind get a good snap. There are some fantastic information boards in the galleries about how they have conserved some of their mummies- think about it, how do you conserve something that has been on open display for 150 years that is a human body (part of the answer is textile conservation netting- yay!).

When I was a little kid, I had a sticker book about Ancient Egypt. I carefully put all the stickers next to the blurb that went with each and looked at it hundreds of times. I saw at least half of the object in that book in real life in those galleries. From the intricately wrapped mummy to the Roman-era painted sarcophagus; the wall paintings to the cat mummy, it was like they all came off the pages of the book. I can`t express just how cool it is to see them up close.

Final British Museum post tomorrow.