One of the key themes of the new We Made It Gallery is to highlight ways we can reduce the amount of waste we produce. With this in mind, it it is fantastic that we have been able to carry out some recycling ourselves by donating an exhibit from the old Move It Gallery to our local partners, the Pen Room.   

Based in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter the Pen Room preserves and promotes “the legacy of the steel pen trade that was unique to the city of Birmingham”. This incredible chapter of the city’s history is wonderfully preserved by the museum and well worth a visit. It’s even free and now features our very own Pen Press Interactive, as mentioned in the museum’s own blog!

This exhibit allows users to get hands on with the pen nib making process, experiencing what it would have been like to make pen nibs by hand. A skilled worker could make 40 nibs in 1 minute! See if you can do the same (I managed it once but after many many attempts!). Here it is in its new home, nicely spruced up by the Pen Room team.

The Pen Press Interactive in its new home!

We hope visitors to our new friends and local partners at the Pen Room enjoy the interactive just as much as the Thinktank visitors did! Although the Pen Press Interactive is gone we will still be displaying this impressive Pen Nib display in the new We Made It gallery.

An amazing display showing the stages of pen nib production

So between us and the Pen Room you really can’t escape learning about Birmingham’s pen making past!