BBC Archive on YouTube once again delivers the goods. A lovely, gentle film about a man making a stained glass window. Apart from the introduction, there is no commentary. There is just the ambient sound of the workshop, life going on outside, and the sound of the film camera whirring away!
Category Archives: Art & Design
Curator’s Corner at the British Museum
I mentioned the British Museum’s YouTube channel in my last post, in a sort of desultory fashion. One of my favourite things is Curator’s Corner. The museum publishes the Corner in “seasons”, and we are in Season 10 at the moment. Do go and have a gander. Essentially, one of the museum’s curating staff is given 15 minutes or so to talk about their favourite pieces.
As I type, the latest video in the Corner is about some of the Sutton Hoo treasures, and how they reveal Anglo Saxon links to far corners of the world in the 6th century CE.
Why did no-one tell me?
I have been discovering new channels – new to me, at least – on YouTube. I have been much taken, for example, by a couple of large and well-known museums that have embraced video to allow somewhat deeper explanation of their collections.
Part of what I enjoy about such channels is the care and attention that objects receive when undergoing conservation. I watched one video from the Victoria & Albert museum where a conservator worked on gently repairing an 18th century fan. I wanted to share it with you, but I can’t, oddly, find the video on the channel now. You will have to make do with this video instead, where a portrait is being carefully removed from a modern frame.
You can see a whole load more videos like this on the V&A YouTube channel. In fact, the missing fan video has now resurfaced. Here it is:
The British Museum also has a channel.
Watching these videos is something I find relaxing and educational. Often, the thought strikes me conservation and restoration is just the kind of work I would love to be involved with.
Yet, when I was at school, back in the 1970s, careers guidance never mentioned “museum conservation”. It was office work, typist, accountant, hair dresser, car mechanic, the armed forces… The thought of steering my educational qualifications towards becoming a conservator would never have entered my head. I had no inkling that such a career even existed. A whole different life might have been mapped out for me if I had known.
I now find, at my advancing age, that I am disappointed I won’t get to be a museum conservator. I will have to make do with the careful repair and restoration of models I manage to break instead!
All good things
It’s time to say goodbye.
No, not me, silly. It’s time to say farewell to a lump of ABS and printed circuit boards that’s been a loyal servant in my home office for almost 30 years.
First, let me take a wander down Memory Lane.
Continue reading All good thingsDrawing
It was an itch I had to scratch.
Too many times I had sat with the blank paper in front of me, pencil or pen poised — and finding no inspiration forthcoming. Even just giving my imagination free rein failed.
I wanted to draw, but draw what?
I decided to go back to first principles. It was like going back to junior school. I found a picture I liked — I have a soft spot for the old Sentinel steam waggons of the 1930s and 1940s, so I found something suitable in my library. I took some tracing paper, and carefully traced the main elements of the photograph. If nothing else, the finished drawing would be more or less the right shape! Once complete, I flipped the tracing over and, using a 6B graphite pencil, rubbed over the reverse of the drawing, effectively making a simple carbon paper. With the drawing inverted once more, I carefully retraced the pencil lines with a hard pencil, transferring the image to my sketch pad.
I ought to have inked the original tracing, because I couldn’t actually see all the lines once I had covered the reverse with pencil rubbing! Lesson (re)learned.
Once I was happy with the “sketch”, I propped the original photo up in front of me, picked up a fine black ink felt pen and started to draw. I referred to the original to clarify the odd shape here and there.
The result you can see above. It’s not perfect. I don’t care. It pleases me. It felt good to have a drawing instrument in my hand once more. I will do more soon.