Category Archives: Gallery Development

Charting the physical creation of the ‘We Made It’ gallery.

Finishing Things!

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What a hectic few weeks for the We Made It team! So much so I have rather neglected the Blog at the very point at which exciting things are happening! My sincere apologies. I hope to make up for it with a few posts rounding some of the projects off.

Firstly, the Gallery! Officially open to our visitors on Saturday 16th February 2013 (tomorrow if you are reading this today!) the We Made It Gallery is looking wonderful. As with all new galleries, we have been in a period of snagging and testing for the past week to make sure all the exhibits and interactives are functioning as they should. This is an extremely time consuming process and can even involve large scale changes right at the last minute! Sometimes it’s only when a display is insitu that we can see whether or not it fits perfectly. 99% of the time our planning pays off and everything is fine but occasionally alterations do need to be made. Hopefully everything should be perfect for tomorrow (with some crossing of figures!) but a gallery is an evolving space so will change based on our visitors needs.

Here’s an array of photos of We Made It looking its very best! If you have a chance to visit do let us know what you think.

Filling the Silver Case

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Casing filling in We Made It is progressing nicely so I thought today I’d focus on one case and look at the some of the processes involved in putting the objects in. Today it’s the turn of the Silver Case, displaying items from the Assay Office.   

We have already looked at mount making in an earlier post but in the Silver Case, mounts are not needed as the objects are placed directly onto the glass shelves. Unlike the Gem Cases, the layout of this case was decided a long time ago and the text panel put in place. In the images below curator Sarah is placing the last few objects on to the shelves, with great care!

Placing In Case

Curator Sarah placing objects in the case

Re-aranging

              Sarah re-aranging an object

Each object is then focused with the individual lights that surround the case. This is a painstaking task but necessary to show the objects off to their full advantage!

Lighting

Object focusing using individual lights

Finally, the text panel on the back of the display is checked for errors. This stage is crucial as smaller bits of the text, like ‘i’ dots can get left behind on the transfer paper, as you can see in the image below!

Case Label

Spot the difference! The case label before and after proof reading

Eventually, the finished case is ready! All objects in place, well lit and with the correct information, perfect! Now on to the next one and the next one… and the next one!

Finished Case

                Finished Case

Gemstone Cases

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The cases of We Made It continue to be filled and today we turn our attention to the Gemstone cases of the Treasure section. Unlike other cases in the gallery, the layout of these were not decided upon in advance. For example, in this case of metal tubes the decision of where to place each object was made a long time ago so that mounts could be made and accurately placed.

Metal Tubes

              Metal Tubes

However, in the Gem cases, the layouts are mocked up with the actual objects in place so they can be moved around until the best layout is found. There are several reasons for this. Firstly, to see in which position each stone looks best, for example standing up or lying flat, which has to be done with the object itself. In addition, to see how different stones look when they are grouped together, such as here in this case of blue and green stones.

Mock up Case

                             Mock up Case

The black background are the actual mounts that the stones will sit on once in the cases, providing different heights and shelves to place the objects on.

Another important consideration is lighting. Gemologist Cally Oldershaw, who is overseeing the whole operation, explains that some stones are a completely different colour depending on how the light strikes them. Take, for example, this piece of Labradorite (named after the place in Canada not the dog!) blue tilted in one direction and grey in another.

Labradorite

One stone, two colours. This piece of Labradorite looks blue in one light, grey in another.

The difference is amazing and this is just one piece of many! The lighting on every single piece will be considered and adjusted to show off the stone to its best.

Before I left Cally showed me her favourite finds of the day, these three pieces of Azurite, in its polished and unpolished state showing the remarkable difference the process of working the stones has.

Blues and Greens Case

Azurite, polished and unpolished.

 I will bring you images of the finished cases once they are complete!

A Beautiful Glass Vase

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You may well be reading this Blog in the post Christmas haze, wolfing down Quality Streets and waiting for New Years Eve. Well I thought I’d let you feast your eyes on something beautiful, this Glass Vase sculpture that was installed in We Made It last week.

Half Glass Vase

    Glass Vase Sculpture

The concept for the vase was to create an exhibit to show different colours, textures and shapes of glass and lenses. The result is this stunning sculpture, designed and made by Paragon Creative, and installed in the Tins and Things section of the gallery. The framework is sprayed and lacquered steel. Glass panels were then formed from a layer of toughened glass, a resin layer and then, in some cases, resin decorations on top. The toughened glass is the same material as bullet-proof glass! Hopefully it will withstand our visitors!

Glass Panes

                         Glass Panes

In total, the vase took two people around 1 month to complete. Johnny, from Paragon, “I’m most proud of the convex lenses as they were the most difficult to stick on”.

Convex Lens

             Convex Lens

The finished piece looks incredible and will be even more impressive once lit from floor lights on the inside. It can even be seen from outside the front of the museum! Take a look at some more images below and enjoy the holiday season!

Thinktank’s Kids in Museums Take Over Day

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Meet another group of We Made It participants, the Take Over Day team!

Kids in Museums Take Over Day is an annual event which aims to encourage museums to involve kids in their work. We decided to use the day a few weeks ago to host a group of children from a charity called The Feast and involve them in designing one of the new family activities for We Made It.

The activity is called Sense Station, a trolley that will allow visitors to handle replicas of objects on display in the gallery and try out demonstrations and experiments that relate to We Made It. The idea is that if kids are involved in designing the activity, then it will be even better for the families that ultimately come to use it. It’s a lot more work for me but so so worth it!

We, of course, started the day with a behind-the-scenes visit to the We Made It Gallery which, at the time, was very much still a building site! There were, however, a few interactives already in place to try out. The unanimous favourite was this one, a spring interactive which is a lot of fun to play with.

 

Spring Interactive

                  Spring Interactive

Something I always want to do when I visit a museum is open up the cases and find out what the objects feel like! Of course, to protect the objects, this isn’t possible so our next task was to choose replica handling objects that will go on to the trolley. I re-created a selection of the object cases from all over the gallery, using photographs of the objects, and asked the group, ‘if you could reach inside the case and pick out an object which would it be’?

Chosen Objects

                           Chosen Objects

In total they chose just over 30 objects and provided the reasons for those choices using post-it notes, as shown above. It is now my task to find as many of these objects as possible! I’ve already started my search by buying this beautiful Agate slice to replicate the ones on display in the Treasure section of the gallery.

Agate Slices

Agate Slices. Handling object (top) and objects for exhibit cases (bottom)

The group’s final task was to try out some prototype activities and demonstrations, and provide feedback on them. All are related to exhibits in We Made It and are designed to help our visitors learn more about the key themes of the gallery. The feedback and ideas they suggested have been really helpful in improving these activities to make them work for our visitors. A big thank you to all the participants and The Feast (who have Blogged about their visit as well). I can’t wait to show them the finished product next year!

 

Objects in Cases

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A very quick post to report that… objects are going in cases! A couple of weeks ago curator Sarah explained the process of mount making which provide the structures for objects to sit in. These are now being utilised as the first objects are placed into the Gadget section of the gallery. The majority of this process will take place after Christmas, however I wanted to document this small milestone! Take a look at a few images below, as well as a couple of new interactives and text panels.

 

Latest Gallery Update

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After a really busy few days I finally got a chance this morning to go back on to the We Made It site to get a few up to date pictures and wow… what a difference a few days make! What I last saw as a building site has now transformed into the shell of a gallery!

With all the major set-work in place, graphic panels are now going up and items like touch screens are being installed. By the end of next week these details will also be finished and attention will turn to installing objects in cases, a mammoth task as there are hundreds of them! But enough words from me, a gallery of pictures is the best way to show our progress!  

Mount Making

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Today’s post is written by Sarah, the curator for We Made It:

Museum exhibitions are carefully constructed projects that take years of preparation. This often surprises people as they only get to see the finished product and rarely get a glimpse of what goes on behind the scenes. One of the most important and exciting stages of that preparation is the mount making. We’ve just started working with our team of mount makers for the We Made It exhibition and they’ll be working at Thinktank until January 2013. 

But, what exactly does this involve? To put it simply, their job is to make objects look their best and to mount them in a way in which people can more easily understand their uses. To use a recent example, one of our cases will include a selection of 19th-century pen nibs. Now, we could simply leave the nibs flat in a box, but it’s much more engaging for our visitors if we use a bit of imagination!

Pen Nib Mount

                       Pen Nib Mount

The mount here shows the pen nib in its most natural position and once the mount is painted to match the case interior, it will give an illusion that it’s floating in midair. The lid also, has been mounted so that it looks as if it’s in midair giving the impression that the box is being opened. The mount making is a creative process that will dictate the ‘look’ of the exhibition which is why we are producing ‘mock-ups’ of every case. These mock-ups are based on the exact case dimensions, and by doing this we can ensure that all the objects fit perfectly. That way, there are no surprises when we come to installing them next year.

All the mounts are handmade on site by the excellent team of mount makers. Take a look at some of the images below to see some of their other work and when you visit We Made It next year take a minute to admire their craftsmanship!  

 

Making a Replica

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A few items from the collection recently went on a holiday to the Jewellery Quarter to be replicated using cutting edge technology.The Jewellery Industry Innovation Centre (JIIC)  is linked to Birmingham City University and the School of Jewellery.  They take up to the minute technology and use it in creative and unusual ways.

We delivered our artefacts, a silver plated cup and lid, and a silver plated salt pot to them, along with a film maker to record the process.

To make copies, they first scanned each artefact with a laser.  This mapped a 3D model of the object onto the computer.  This virtual model could then be scaled up or down, to make the copy bigger or smaller than the original.
 

Scaning Artefacts

                  Scanning Artefacts

 

The computer transferred the dimensions to a 3D printer, which instead of ink, prints layers of resin and support material.  This is a very gradual process and took around 2 hours.  When the printing finished, the support material was removed to reveal the resin copy.

The original items were made of a silver plated base metal.  So to make the copies look the same, the resin copy was coated with a thin layer of conductive paint; this meant it could be copper plated in an electroplating tank.  Finally, to complete the process the copper plated copy was then silver plated.

The whole process took several days to complete, but as each step was filmed, the footage has been condensed down into a 4 minute film which will show in the new gallery.  This shot from the film shows two scaled down replica lids, one made of resin, and one silver plated. 

Finished Artefacts

                      Finished Artefacts

Have a look out for the film and the original items in the Treasure section of the We Made It gallery when it opens next year.

P.S: One of our funders heavily involved in the Treasure section of the gallery is the Birmignham Assay Office, they have written their own Blog post here.

Riley Elf Motorcar

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A Riley Elf Motorcar has entered the building!

Today saw the arrival of yet another object from the Science and Industry collection that the We Made It gallery is putting back on display. The Riley has been stored at the Museum Collection Centre for the last few years so it is wonderful to see it back out for our visitors to see.

The Riley is an upmarket version of the famous Mini, being slightly longer and with more boot space. They were produced from 1961 to 1969 with just over 30,000 built in total. This car was cut away to show the parts by Austin Motor Company apprentices at Longbridge in Birmingham in 1961.

It will be going into the ‘Orientation’ section of the We Made It Gallery but for now is being stored in our workshop!