Weaverhall Museum Archives in Northwich

Two of my quickly drawn sketches

I had a brilliant 2 hours in the archives at the Weaverhall Museum (AKA the old Salt Museum) in Northwich yesterday. It wasn't really long enough , but I found 2 boxes full of salt tins and drew 8 of them really quickly...it fits really well with my present interest in objects that dispense things.

Michael Leigh scans the shelves

6 different ways to sprinkle salt

The Brothers Quay

I meant to Blog this ages ago, but it slipped my mind, thank goodness for note books..
When we were looking around the Wellcome Museum we saw a lovely film made by the Brothers Quay in 2002, called "Random Forays into Sir Henry Wellcome's Medical Collection". The Brothers had been given access to the Museum storerooms in Blythe House and the whole film was very playful, animating many of their chosen objects  from the collection and also showing us around the actual store rooms.

must check if it is on youtube... (can't find it).

Drawing, thinking and playing with explosives...

My idea of a great day..almost deafend myself though.. trying to make "The Safety Banger Deployment Device" Made a rough idea and drew a few more as well and cut out some pieces for a conical one. I tested a cone and the whole banger flew apart and made a very loud bang.

Idle doodlings in sketchbook.

Test Safety Banger Deployment Device

Party Popper Bangers

My next project......
What to do with all the used explosions...?

The one on the right doesn't seem to have gone off.

each one slightly different

unrolled banger

The Berlin Schatzkammer (Treasure Room).

I thought Alex would really like this room...it was a room in the basement of the Berlin Museum of Communications. It was very dark and had a series of circular cases, each one only had one object in it and the light only came on as you approached it. The objects all had interesting stories .. my favourite two were some slightly burnt letters from the Hindenburg and Joseph Beuy's Tin can telephone. I did a rather rushed drawing in my notebook...but it might help you imagine the room.
It worked to help you really concentrate on the object in front of you and not be distracted by other things or people....you were stood in the dark with this object and its story.

I looked up the meaning of SCHATZKAMMER:-

"Schatzkammer is a German word which translates as Treasure Room, and is a term also used in English for the collection of treasures, especially those in precious metals and jewels, of a ruler or other collector, kept in a secure room, often in the basement of a palace or castle. It also often included the wider types of object typical of the Renaissance cabinet of curiosities."

Drawing of Berlin finds

Followed my own advice and drew the objects I found in Berlin...getting to know them...

Emergency Joke Capsules

Made three more joke capsules. drew out the jokes before sealing them in.

Putting the genie back in the bottle

Sainsburys had a sale on of party poppers, so I now own 300 of them, so today I dissected a few, and let a few off...I think they are cheap because the explosive is a little over zealous and it just shoots the streamer across the room never to be seen again..I hope they are not all the same?

Mind you the pound shop ones varied...I dissected two and one contained the nicely rolled up streamers and the second was stuffed with the little tangled ball of streamers you see on the bottom left hand page of my sketchbook.
I sat and drew out some ideas for a streamer winder.

If you don't understand it..draw it..

A bit chilly in my workshop today..but with 2 cardies and 2 pairs of socks I sat in there and pondered. I have bought a few more items for the A1 Scrap Metal collection and this seemed a good time to study them. One particular object, labelled a "Tension Gauge", which I bought for £2 from Blakemere was baffling me...so I sat and drew it..now I understand how the thing works..Still not sure where it was used..in the textile industry maybe? but I figured out how the bits on the side clipped in and how the scale worked and the tension could be altered..

Xmas Things of the least

Inspired by something Alex said about how she is keeping a daily diary of things of the least, I collected a few bits and pieces from Xmas day, things that often people discard. The party popper string, some bad cracker jokes and the streamers from a failed party popper.

The failed Party Popper

Scorch marks from a loud explosion

Why do these jokes still make me laugh?