Friday 12 December 2014

The Ostrich Egg

in the Discovery for All sessions on a Sunday morning
we are allowed to get objects out of the cabinets for visitors.


Allowing people to handle objects,
touch them, look at them from every angle, feel the weight of them
and probably most importantly encourage more talk about them
than if they were just sat behind glass.

There are the usual objects that capture the public's imagination
I'm always asked to get these things out.
With the object most asked for being the Puffer-fish,
a dried out, hollow, very spikey, puffed up puffer-fish.

Then there are the objects that people hardly ever notice.
In museums these are called 'silent objects',
the less conspicuous objects.
Such as the Ostrich Egg.
Asked for today by a family of five.


It was cold, it was white (ish), covered in tiny dots, "like an orange"
and felt much less fragile than you would have thought.

Kid: "What's inside? Is there a chick inside?"

Mum: "No, it's like our eggs, you know, with a yolk."

Kid: "Why is there a hole in the end"

Me: "That's to get what's inside out. Like blowing eggs."

Mum: "I wonder how many pancakes you can make using that egg?
Between these lot, they have about four each,
I make pancakes every Sunday morning."

I comment on how nice this is, try and cadge an invite.

"Nice for them, I've got to get up and make them,
and do the washing up too."
Mum is smiling, it obviously is a much loved family tradition.

As for what gives 'silent objects' a voice?
Well in this case, breakfast.


I sent them off to the natural history gallery to double check it was an Ostrich Egg.


You can see the holes,
must have needed quite a bit of puff to blow those eggs.


Sometimes though, you get a chick.


Discovery for All is in the Hands On Base in the Horniman Museum
every Sunday and sometimes in the school holidays.
Details on their website here.

If you're interested in my posts on those 'loud' objects, the ones that get noticed most often,
and would like to see more of whats in the Hands on Base in the Horniman Museum,
here are the links:

4 comments:

  1. So fascinating!! I saw an episode of masterchef Australia once and they had to cook with an ostrich egg, I seem to remember that someone made a massive omelette!! xx

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  2. The walrus must be the loudest object! How interesting I'd never thought of objects in terms of loudness. You could apply that categorisation to things in the home perhaps.

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    Replies
    1. Loud in our home would be any screen. However the hama beads are quite loud at the moment. Books sitting there quite sliently, do get looked at occasionally too.

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