Monday 19 December 2011

First visit to the museum November 2011

On a chilly day in November I set off up the M6 to visit the Dales Countryside Museum for the first time.  I had planned to focus my investigations on particular areas of the collection, including agricultural and craft tools, but I also wanted to be open to finding things that would inspire me on the day.  Here are a few of the photographs I took on the day.

 These shoe lasts were used to make leather shoes in the local area.
 Rows of tools in the Tinsmith workshop.  I was perhaps most drawn to the tinsmith workshop area in the museum, because of the similarities with my own metalworking practice.
 Odd drawer handles used; 'Make-do and mend'.
 These cardboard and metal templates, used by the Tinsmith to cut out the separate parts of flat tin sheet to be shaped and joined, were particularly inspiring.
 The Tinsmith workshop
 As a hobbyist hand-knitter myself, the collection of objects originating from the old hand-knitters of the Dales, from the were particularly interesting.  Stacked here are sock stretching molds, used to stretch hand-knitted socks to the correct size.  Each wooden mold is stamped with their size.

These butter moulds, stamps and rollers, were used to decorate and identify local dairies' produce.  These appealed to my love of mark-making tools and moulds.

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