Re:Make Museum

After lots of cleaning, cataloguing, positioning, foam cutting and mounting, the 30 Derby Porcelain foam squares have been completed! Freelance curator, Ruth Bellamy has been carefully cutting out the foam and has the calluses to show it! A sad looking Ruth looks on at the last leg. The 30 squares are due to be mounted in the ground floor of the space next week. 

The front entrance commission was awarded to artist Seiko Kinoshita who has been inspired by the #HexPod work package from Re:Make to create a family of hexagonal modules. #HexWall located in the entrance of The Silk Mill will be an interactive piece through the use of lights and sounds controlled by a Raspberry Pi. 

Yesterday was a very exciting day for Seiko and the project team here as the modules were installed on the entrance wall. 

The aim of the commission was to enhance the entrance and exit space with a visually inspiring, textural installation that articulated ‘making’ and ‘materials’. Andrea Hadley-Johnson worked with Seiko to select a dynamic material palette of woods, warm coloured acrylic with accents of copper and aluminium.

Watch this space for further updates on the project! 

To celebrate the success of Re:Make so far we invited project participants, partners and staff along for a small gathering with games, activities, music and pizza for a chance to feedback on the project. Unfortunately one of our project partners Bauman Lyons couldn't be with us so we scheduled a Skype call and showed them the space! 

Artist Paul Matosic was commissioned to work at The Silk Mill as an artist in residence to create an installation of 1000's of Derby Porcelain moulds. The project is now at the stage where the pieces are arranged, pinned and placed into foam plaques. 

Objects from the Derby Museums collection are making their way to the ground floor and populating the space. Last night volunteers helped move a rather large pipe, estimated at 160kg in weight, from the 1st floor. 

Aiton & Co Ltd. were a corrugated pipe manufacturers in Derby. The use of the corrugated pipe was over a period from the mid 1920s to the later 1950s when the first nuclear power station in the world was built at Calder Hall. Aiton & Co Ltd supplied some corrugated piped for this prestige project. 

This pipe is from H.M.S Cossak and was damaged in the battle of Narvik, 1940.It is at The Silk Mill in memory of those employees of Aiton & Co Ltd. who gave their lives in the second world war. 

From small samples and many prototypes, the wire knitted and knotted lampshades are really taking shape! This week we plan to hang them in the space. 

Today we welcomed year 3 and 4 pupils from Beckett Primary School to The Silk Mill who have been asked along to support the front entrance commission lead by artist Seiko Kinoshita. 

Listening to a range of Silk Mill inspired sounds, including factory engines, trains and Rolls Royce engines, the children were asked to work together, in groups and as a whole, to recreate the sound. Using their voices, clapping and even stamping their feet the sound create was then recorded. Seiko will now work with the collected sounds to form the next part of her project.