On top of cabinet five...

I'd never noticed them before...
...not until a man asked if he could possibly take a look at the boomerangs on top of cabinet five.

There were two. Very unassuming.

Carved strips of wood.

But you would be amazed at how heavy they are. I didn't expect the weight, nor the chat...

"Must be hard-wood?" 

He began, "...the craftsmanship, all hand-carved, no machines, look at the uneven surface.

"Perfect aerodynamics, the curve of the top surface, greater than the one underneath, this is what produces the lift so it rises into the air when thrown." 

 "An aerofoil, designed so when you throw it, it rises into the air,
spins around and comes back to you."

"All that technology, and remember this was before the age of aeroplanes!"

Tools created with such a sophisticated knowledge of aerodynamics, designed to be thrown, to rise in the air, spin about their axis, follow a curved path and to return to their owner.

Inspiring!

I really must spend more time talking to retired carpenters.

I'll never look at these boomerangs in the same way again.

You can hold (perhaps not throw) them for yourself in the Discovery for All session in the Hands-on Base on Sundays and during school holidays in the Horniman Museum. More details here. 

Visitor Responses

When looking at objects with visitors you get such varied responses... 

'I don't want to wee on it!' What did that five year old make of our discussion about foxes wee-ing on hedgehogs to make them uncurl from a ball when trying to attack them?

'Has that hedgehog ever been wee'd on by a fox?' asked his big sister after she'd touched it.

I know a little about the animals in the Hands-On Base at the Horniman Museum, however not the answer to that question.

 'Cute but full of fleas', said his mother.

'It doesn't move anymore!', said a perplexed two and a half year old about this squirrel. Understanding the difference between dead and alive in taxidermy is a difficult concept when you're two and a half.

One kid asked me about a stuffed fox...

'Is it dead?'

'yes', I replied

'but is it dead alive?'

I reassured him that it really was 'dead alive'.

Stuffed foxes can make little children very nervous.

A stuffed fox can be a deal breaker. I've seen little children refuse to come into a gallery because of a curled up taxidermy fox. Or, as is more usual, rush over to it, stroke it and occasionally try and sit on it.  

Perhaps I stressed the importance of safe object handling too much...

'I heard the sea... and I didn't break it', said a really keen visitor age three.

These objects are in the Hands-On Base in the Horniman Museum in Forest Hill, London. Visit the Discovery For All session on Sunday afternoons. You can touch them and see what you make of them, over 3,000 of them.

You can read more about the handling session here.

Unexpected Connections

Learning in museums can be all about making personal connections.

Sometimes people make the most unexpected connections.

A secondary school girl spoke to me the other day,

"See that dog's head?"

"...my brother's girlfriend looks like that."

It got me thinking, which dog do I look like?

You may be thinking, just the heads? One little boy, struggling with the idea of just the heads, was saved from the brink of tears when a quick-thinking gallery attendant reassured him that all was OK because the dogs were still intact, their bodies behind the wall. He left happy. 

If you would like to see the collection of dog's heads and perhaps decide who they look like. Visit the Natural History gallery at the Horniman Museum in Forest Hill.

http://www.horniman.ac.uk/

Colour Inspiration

"Wouldn't that pinky-brown be a lovely colour to paint your walls?"
A question put to me by a visitor as we admired these beautiful Passenger Pigeons at The Horniman Museum.

These beautiful birds are now extinct but used to account for forty percent of the North American bird population. Apparently a flock, which usually contained around two billion birds, could sound like thunder. Imagine being there as they flew past?
The last passenger pigeon was said to have been shot in 1900.
How do they know that?
And how on earth do flocks comprising of billions of birds disappear from our planet?

Nevertheless we can still admire them at The Horniman Museum. Inspiration for saving endangered species or perhaps for choosing the paint colour for our walls.

Just when you thought it was safe...

Which has the most teeth? A comb, a bike cog or a sharks jaw? Count them for yourself whilst rooting through the ‘teeth’ discovery box found in the Hands on Base, Horniman Museum. Discovery for All session, Sunday afternoons.

A shark never runs out of teeth. If it loses one, another comes forward. It must cost the tooth fairy quite a bit.

http://www.horniman.ac.uk/visit/events/event/discovery-for-all-60