Week Twelve

This past week was nothing but installation work for the Royal Fusiliers Museum, which is slightly crazy and very fun to do. With each day the gallery space seemed to fill up with more workmen who were painting walls/ wiring lights/ installing CCTV cameras/ installing cabinets etc. It also seemed like more members of the regiment continued to appear and were only too happy to tell us when the uniforms/ boots/ gun on a mannequin had something wrong with them (the experience of having a soldier show you how to properly hold a gun is slightly surreal). I can sum it up by telling you about North Ireland man. Here I am putting him in his showcase.

Once we put his head and helmet on, he no longer fit in the showcase. So, here I am the next day sewing a neck cap and neck covered to his mannequin after it was decided he would be exhibited without his head (so he would fit in the showcase- which is a nice feature).

This is the second room I worked on him that day. In the morning, there were men on ladders drilling holes in wall above his showcase. Construction dust and artifacts to not mix, so we transfered him across the hall to the gallery where the medals are displayed because there was no one in there. Yet. Then the large gaggle of people wanting to look at the medals room as a model changing room for an upcoming benefit showed up. So people trickled in and out of the space. And then a few workmen moved into the room. And then the huge cabinets for displaying the Victoria Crosses in the collection arrived....

So we moved him back across the hall, past the freshly painted baseboard, into his actual gallery, which is where the photos were taken.

You may notice that I had to work on a step ladder, since it was the only way I could reach his neck. Crazy, but I loved every minute of it. Most of our work at the Fusiliers is done, except for one last day where we will install George`s bearskin hat and a colour (flag) that dates from the Nepoleonic era. I found out today that I get to go help on that install day, which makes me very happy because there is no better feeling than seeing your hard work achieve something.