Polished Silver for the First Time

Yesterday at the museum we had a donors family come in to see the collection they had donated, so we had to set up a small exhibit for them to view the artifacts. I learned how to carefully move old paintings around, how to dust paintings properly with the right type of brushes, and how to polish silver. It was my first time ever touching silver so it was a new experience for me.
Silver tarnishes over time and curators often have to take the silver objects out to polish them (removing the tarnish with calcium carbonate or silver cleaning cloths). When dealing with older silver pieces, it's best to wear gloves so that the oil on your fingers doesn't stain the silver.
And so I polished a badly tarnished silver trophy cup until it looked like-new again. The process took about 25-30 minutes, which is actually pretty short according to my mentor. Sometimes it can take longer depending on how bad the damage is.

 This is a portion of what I set up. 

 The cup on the right is the tarnished silver trophy.

And this is what the cup looked like after I finished polishing it.

 Another part of the collection we were showing off.

 Close up of my favorite painting out of the small collection.

 Me. Polishing silver with calcium carbonate.

What I did today was completely different! I got to transcribe a probate inventory of Smauel Ogle's estate. A probate inventory is basically a list of all the things a person owned, along with the value of each item. The inventory monetary value I was given is in the English Pound.

Here is a picture of what the handwriting looked like. It took a long time to read what I needed to transcribe...

Internship Duties

What I have been doing so far is still a bunch of shadowing the head curator and reporting what it is I learned at the end of the day. I am given articles, books, and handbooks to read through on my own time in order to understand more about art curation. At the end of each day I am expected to have a small list of questions to ask (and believe me, I have a good number of questions that I ask).

I work with my mentor a lot of the time since she has so much experience. She is currently teaching me how to catalog objects for the museum collection using a software called PastPerfect. Using this, I plan to collect all the information I can about the racehorse paintings inside Belair Mansion in order to create a small book. Belair Mansion has a huge chunk of it's history in horse racing, yet there is nothing physical to read about the equine artworks. The supervisor thought it would be a great idea for me to come up with a booklet detailing the equine collections that were once displayed in the house as well as the ones that are currently there. It's a good way for me to learn how to do this process and to be able to give something back to the museum. 

If you are interested in some of the articles I have been reading, here is the list:

1) Mining the Museum by Fred Wilson

2) September 11 and the Mourning After: Reflections on Collecting and Interpreting the Historry of Tragedy by James B. Gardner and Sarah M. Henry

3)From Being about Something to being for Somebody - The Ongoing Transformation of the American Museum

Internship: What I Have Been Doing Thus Far

On Tuesday, I began my first day as a student intern in Belair Mansion. I've been given the title "Curatorial Intern" by the head curator, as I have been shadowing her for the past two days, learning how to catalog collections and other various museum duties.

The first day was a lot of discussions involving what I am interested in doing in a museum, where do I see myself inside a museum/gallery, how can I benefit from this experience and foremost, what can the mansion get from me in return. So, it was basically just a lot of questions until we were able to break down what I would be doing for the museum and for myself.
I learned what a curator job entails, which is educating and inspiring the public. A collection/object/art piece tells a story and it's up to the curator to make sure it can be easily conveyed to visitors. Inspiring questions and thinking is the main goal.
Behind the scenes a curator is also responsible for marketing and networking with other museums.

The second day, Wednesday, I shadowed the curator on a guided tour of the mansion. She explained the history behind each room but also went into detail about the art work that was decorating each room. I realized that you constantly need to keep up to date with information about each work in order to answer questions correctly. Also, getting over a fear of public speaking is a must for those who work in the forefront of a museum/gallery.

I was given some materials to read about museums and curatorial work to help me better understand what I can do. So I'll be reading the books given to me, along with starting to plan out the project we want to work on.

How I made a custom model horse

I'm a horse lover. I always have been and always will be. I rode horses for over 10 years before I started college, one of the best outdoor activities one can do in my opinion. Any horse enthusiast out there will know of the Breyer company. They make realistic model horses that can be collected by the young and old alike. I myself have quite the model horse collection. 

One day I decided that I wanted to make my own. However, I did not want to sculpt my own horse. So I went online and ordered a DIY paint your own Breyer horse kit. The kit I ordered included a 6inch horse without a main or tail (it came with hair that you could glue on). The kit was about $15 at the time when I bought it. 

The following 3 pictures are the horse right out of the box.

After watching come Youtube videos, reading blogs, and researching what materials I could use I began my project.

I bought Apoxie Sculpt, a basic sculpting tool kit, and acrylics paints.

For those that do not know, Apoxie Sculpt is a molding compound that comes in two parts, Part A and Part B. One is the molding compund, and the other is the hardener. You have about a 2 hour time period to work with this material before it hardens.

The following 2 pictures show the apoxie sculpt I molded to resemble a horses mane. To smooth out the apoxie, I used water on my fingertips. I would let the apoxie harden a little at a time in between taking my tools to create a hairlike texture. Toothpicks are a great tool, by the way! I used a toothpick more than my clay tools haha.

I did the same thing with the tail. Because of the shape I wanted I had to use a wire base on the tail, so underneath all that apoxie is a wire. It takes about 12 hours for the apoxie to dry completely. Once it's dry, it feels like a hard plastic. I sanded down the rough parts and got ready to paint.

Here are the colors I chose to paint my custom horse, without a glaze.

And now with a glaze! I decided to change the color of the hooves right before I painted on a glaze. The glaze I used was a Sculpy glossy glaze. You can find this glaze at any Michaels or AC More.

Now I have a custom Breyer horse model to go along with my collection!!

Ceramics

Yesterday the rest of my ceramics were ready to be taken out of the kiln. Here are the pictures! Most off center but definitely adorable. Made with a lot of love and plenty of frustration. Mostly love though.

It's Done!

Yep, it's official. I have an internship! I will be working with the City of Bowie at Belair Mansion, doing various things such as helping with curating and coming up with a booklet that showcases the many pieces of art inside the mansion/stables.

It's a relief to know I wont have to worry about the MNCPPC now. If they ever call me to tell me I've been accepted, well....it's too late. I'm close to home and will be working with people I already know.
I'm pretty happy right now :)

Here is a link to Belair Mansion

I will be starting next week on Tuesday at 9:00 AM - 4:30 PM.

Commissioned Paintings

Studio Ghilbli styled fanart paintings in acrylic paint. All scenes taken from specific shots in the movies.

Princess Mononoke (San)

Naussica of the Valley of the Wind (Naussica and Teto)

Howl's Moving Castle (Sophie and Calcifer)

Princess Mononoke (Ashitaka and Yakul)

More Wheel Throwing and Handbuilding Stuff!

Today I was able to take home two pieces that were fired last week. The little shot glass and cup were covered in a low-fire glaze, amber and purple, but unfortunately my other pieces that were not covered in the low-fire glaze were not ready to take home. Apparently the kiln with those pieces in it had been turned off, which really sucks. I was super excited to see how they came out but I'll have to wait until next week. At least these two are done!

The shot glass...thing...was an experimental piece I did when a cylinder I was throwing collapsed on itself. I decided to salvage what I could and make something tiny and cute.

I made sure to glaze the insides.

This is a bowl my friend Tamika made. It's super pretty!

Got to glaze my horse head today. I chose to use a black, low-fire glaze on the mane.

And then I used the amber low-fire glaze for the body. Can't wait to see how it looks next week.

This is a bowl that my professor made with another student, but she wanted me to glaze it for her.

I chose to use a blue (yes, the white glaze turns blue once it's fired).

Then, I put black glaze on top (again, yes, the red glaze you see here is going to turn black once it it done being fired).

Second Internship Opportunity

So instead of sitting on my butt waiting for the MNCPPC to call me back I reached out to a family friend who works at Belair Mansion, a local historic site here in Maryland. It's a mansion that was built in 1745, home to Samuel Ogle, and was known for race-horse breeding.

Next week I plan to meet with the supervisor and basically conduct yet another interview. She already has some projects in mind but I wont know what she wants me to do until I meet with her. I'm excited and nervous at the same time. Working in a museum has always been something I've wanted to do because of my liking for Art History and anything related to the 18th century.

Hopefully I'll enjoy my time working for the city!