A hectic week that's not quite over

Post Demo Tarp

The last half of this week has been a hodge podge of meetings and writing.  Yesterday, I had a fun morning at The Rooms doing a flintknapping demo for the grade 8 class who are doing the Open Minds program this week.  Every week throughout the school year, a different classroom full of kids in the St. John's area get to go to school in The Rooms and learn all about the Museum, Art Gallery, and Archive.  They delve behind the scenes and meet and work with different staff and guest presenters for 5 days.

Winter! I love it!

The demo went well and the kids were great, although I'm sure the flintknapping was eclipsed by the snowstorm that gave them the rest of the day off after lunch.  I'm happy to see winter finally arrive as well - its been way to warm and wet here lately.  It'll be nice to have some snow on the ground for a while.

Ulu reproductions and artifact

With the kids gone and a storm raging outside, I took my time packing up.  I had a few reproductions with me based on artifacts on permanent exhibit in the Connections Gallery in the museum, so I popped in and took a few pictures of some of the reproductions next to the original artifacts that inspired them.

Reproductions used at The Rooms

On the work front, I've been doing a bit of writing.  I wrote a note on Andrew Qappik's November trip to Newfoundland for the Craft Council Newsletter and I'm working on a summary of the hooded seal skin experiments from last spring for the Provincial Archaeology Newsletter.  Three of the four authors for the Bird Cove Maritime Archaic Indian paper met this morning and we hashed out what needs to go into the next edit of the paper.  Hopefully we can get that wrapped up and out to review in the next few weeks.

Verdigris encrusted copper needle

I haven't done much in the workshop over the past few days, although the needle has been patinating away in its evaporating dish of red wine vinegar and Miracle Gro.  It has a good colour.  I'll give it another 24 hours or so to make sure its done reacting and then I'll scrape the crystals off and scorch it with the blowtorch.  Everything looks more antiqued after a healthy blast from the blowtorch.

Photo Credits: Tim Rast