It’s blowing a hooley!!

Hello, Rebecca here.

Yes, it’s winter time again and the winds and gales are lashing the north coast of Cornwall, being the first to take the brunt of it! Thankfully the Headgear is still standing, but making an amazing whistling sound when you stand under it due to the wind! General visitor numbers have thinned out now, as the holiday season has ended, but it gives us valuable maintenance time, to prepare for next years season. Last week though we had several groups in, battling through the wind. Me & Claire had to utilise our ‘Hands on Hats!’ signal to quieten the students as we couldn’t shout over them and the wind – not all day anyway, we’d end up with no voice at all! Our new undercover handdrilling area works a treat though and is really sheltered – so thanks to David& Bill and Barry & Andrew for getting that ready for us 🙂

Only one school group left to do this term now, but that’s fine as we’ve got our Christmas event to prepare for, on Mon 21st Dec, and we’re having a new grotto this year. Previously Santa’s used our underground grotto, but we thought we’d be kind, as he such a busy fellow in December, and so we’re putting him in a more sheltered spot!

Last week I went through the struggle of trying to buy some carbide for our Light & Dark workshop, but it’s a hard chemical to get from a distance – something to do with the fact that it gives of a flammable gas when it’s wet! But that’s why it was used in the miners’ carbide lamps. Eventually I found a caving suppliers who’s willing to post some, though trying to find a dry storage spot in an old tin mine may be the next challenge… http://www.geevor.com/index.php?object=269

Plus Claire and I had a little visitor in the office last week – one who likes to nibble on sweets and leave deposits around the room…No, it’s not a child, but something with a tail! To be expected in this place I suppose! The things we put up with to work in such a cool place!

Definetly not chardonnay….

Geevor’s Curator Jo W, blogs on the dramas of opening an exhibition….

October was probably one of my busiest months this year. The excitement and hard work revolved around opening our new exhibition in the Hard Rock Gallery; Wildlife on the edge.

Putting this exhibition together was relatively straightforward in exhibition terms. David and Steve were a joy to work with and David even offered to help hang the works. His maths skills (both speed and accuracy) meant that he had the role of doing the complicated calculations to discover how many inches apart the pictures had to be! Excellent. Alas it transpired that some of Steve’s images were upside down (you be the judge!) so I had to rehang a whole wall with Pat’s help at the last minute and with no David to add up. So of course I got it wrong on the first attempt. The difference between a five and a four inch gap lost us about 3 hours of hanging time. However, both Pat and I are now power tool addicts! Captions came together smoothly and invites were sent out without drama.

Rebecca and I were taught how to install vinyl to the walls in order for us to keep costs down in the future. This was a bit nerve-wracking (I’m not that good with straight lines) but worth it! Claire and Rebecca worked lots of learning magic and the fox tracks, especially, bring the whole exhibition together. The sounds are a touch of genius and the soon-to -be smells (they sent the wrong ones!) will hopefully add another sensory element to the exhibition. I must mention that Nick T now seems to be spray mount king of West Penwith!

We also hung the winners and runners up of our amateur photography competition. It was great to meet some of the folks involved at the private view. This time the private view was held on a Friday afternoon and although it is still faffy, we now have this off to a fine art. Now added to our resources is a lovely new white linen table cloth. Hurrah. But never try to iron it whilst on top of a plastic table!! Without Claire Ross, Claire Scott did an equally visually stunning collection of nibbles. I had to sort out drinks. Being a non wine drinker, this can easily have disastrous consequences. So armed with my sister’s advice ‘don’t buy chardonnay’ and a keen eye for an interesting label design as well as a 3 for 2 bargain I think I did ok! Jess and Bernie rocked up and did their PR bit wonderfully. Well done all and thanks.

So now we can breathe a little. Or not, as the case may be. I am now 4 weeks into my secondment which means that I only spend 2 and a half days at Geevor, and 2 and a half days on my seconded job, based at the Royal Cornwall Museum in Truro working to help develop smaller museums in Cornwall. So putting an exhibition on on 2.5 days was more than a little crazy and I didn’t get much sleep! From now on, priorities will have to be agreed and stuck to and I will have to say no to some things that are simply not physically possible in 2.5 days. A lesson learnt.

David Chapman presenets winner of the U16 competition Alex Valenti with his prize. Lill'ole me on the right...