National Museums Liverpool Blog - Thursday, August 20, 2009

Bug House Demonstrator, Rebekah Beresford, is back again to tell us about her latest project in the Bug House at World Museum Liverpool. This time she has been giving the Hermit Crabs' vivarium a make-over! You can see the photos from each stage of the project on our Bug House Flickr set.

The Hermit Crab vivarium

After the success of the Indian Ground Beetles display earlier this year it was decided that some of our other vivariums could also do with a revamp! The Bug House hasn’t kept any mantids for over a year now and they’re incredibly popular with the visitors - so the next vivarium on the list was their display.

The new vivarium arrived from Exo Terra and was made by leading experts in the world of exotics. We got to work on siliconing in a glass partition, a third of the way along the tank to create a fresh water pool. Hermit crabs require fresh water so that they can mix it with salt water. The crabs then pull up into their shells their own preferred salinity reservoir from which they can breathe through. The fresh water pool in this vivarium will house a variety of aquatic invertebrates such as apple snails and gammarus (shrimp-like amphipods). The pool will also be useful for maintaining the humidity in the tank.

Coming from the Caribbean, these Hermit Crabs require humidity of around 70%. Hermit Crabs are avid climbers so it was important to factor this in to the design. A polystyrene wall made to look like rock work was ideal. It was easy to cut and wedged into place perfectly down one side of the vivarium. With some plants and bark attached the crabs would have plenty to climb and perch on.

Once the silicone had dried we tested it for leaks and luckily there weren't any! The pool was filled with gravel and the waterfall was set in place. The waterfall runs with a small pump set inside it. It’ll make the finished vivarium look quite impressive.

Hermit Crabs are renowned for being boisterous and particularly clumsy, so it was necessary to silicone some bark along the rim of the glass partition. This would prevent substrate from being kicked into the pool and also to allow leverage for the crabs to pull themselves out.

Whilst this was setting I had time to add the substrate to the land area. Hermit crabs dig themselves under ground for protection whilst moulting. Being invertebrates their skeleton is on the outside and moulting their skin to grow is a big deal. In the wild predatory birds could snatch them above ground level so they are forced under ground to do this. Even though hermit crabs are social creatures they are still opportunistic feeders. They would happily eat a moulting crab which would be soft and vulnerable and unable to protect itself, so it was important to factor in plenty of space to avoid this.

The next thing was to rehydrate the coco fibre to mix with the sand. Coco fibre comes from the husk of coconuts and is widely used in vivariums to provide sound air content and moisture in the substrate. The coco fibre was then added to the land area creating a gradient. This could then be mixed together lightly but the crabs would do a good enough job mixing it together themselves.

One of the last requirements for the vivarium was to add the climbing material. Drift wood is perfect for this because it’s so robust. I used smaller pieces along the climbing wall in steps for the hermits to climb over. Before it goes out on display I’ll add some bamboo and extra foliage.

Thanks to Phil from the aquarium, I was able to acquire a rainforest creeper called Devil’s Ivy. It’s commonly seen for sale in garden centres as house plants but its native to Asia. The plant was trained around the drift wood through to the fresh water pool. It’s a climbing plant and clings onto tree bark using its aerial roots. It’s also very hardy so will re-root itself quickly if the hermit crabs dig it up several times.

The Hermit Crab vivarium is now on display in the Bug House so come along and see them in their new home!

As you may know, this weekend sees the Slavery Remembrance Day festival - there's more on the background to the event on our main website. A good number of the weekend's events are supported with British Sign Language, including Diane Nash's lecture. There's a good mix of activities, dramatisations, discussions, lectures and performances. A full list of the supported events can be found on our BSL interpretation events page.

You could win tickets to see either the Soweto Gospel Choir on Saturday 5 September or Odemba OK Jazz All Stars on Tuesday 29 September.

To enter just visit the International Slavery Museum and answer this simple question:

What section of the International Slavery Museum is the Black Achievers Wall in?

Please send us your answer using this contact form to arrive before midnight on Tuesday 25 August 2009, stating which concert you would prefer to see. There will be two winners, one for each concert. There's more on the competition and the featured artists on our main site.

Apologies if you've tried to enter already and failed - a slight technical problem. It should be working fine now.

I was very interested in an article in the Guardian by Syma Tariq on women artists and institutional collecting. The Walker Art Gallery has been collecting work by women artists since its foundation in the 1870s. These works, which now form perhaps the best collection of historic art by women in a public gallery in England, span from the 16th century to the present day. Artists include Lavinia Fontana and Rosalba Carriera, but what do we call them? Old Masters obviously not, but the alternative Old Mistresses is worse! A clear demonstration of the art historical bias.

Our exhibition, The Rise of Women Artists (opens on 23 October 2009), will examine historical changes affecting women, looking at their status and careers as they moved to assert themselves as artists in their own right. It will also highlight the breadth of the Walker’s collection. In fact such is the strength of the collection of work by women, that some key works can’t be included in the large exhibition space, but will instead feature in a tour of other works by female artists in the rest of the galllery.

The exhibition features work by Vigee-Lebrun and Angelica Kauffman as well as less well known artists of the 19th century such as Annie Swynnerton. Contemporary artists including Louise Bourgeois and Paula Rego will complete the journey to the present day. 

You have until Monday to enter our competition and win a luxury weekend away in London.

This fabulous prize is being offered to tie in with the Royal Academy's exhibition, J.W. Waterhouse: The Modern Pre-Raphaelite, which includes one of the Walker's paintings, Echo and Narcissus.

The prize includes two nights accommodation at a five-star hotel, tickets to the exhibition and first class return tickets from Liverpool.

Competition details and how to enter can be found on our main site.

Kenny Everett. Copyright Liverpool Daily Post and Echo

Here's another one of Stephen Shakeshaft's fantastic photos, this time of a well known face. This photograph hasn't made it into his upcoming exhibition 'Liverpool people by Stephen Shakeshaft', which opens at the National Conservation Centre on 18 September, but it made me smile so I thought I'd share it with you. Stephen took this picture early on during Kenny Everett's career and remembers:

"Celebrity Squares was a popular quiz show hosted by Bob Monkhouse. The voiceover as the prizes for contestants came on was from the irrepressible Kenny Everett - who went on to be a great DJ and television star. I was amazed how many bottles of cola he got through during the show."

As regular visitors will realise, there are always small changes taking place within our galleries, even in the 'permanent' displays, as objects do occasionally get removed for loans or conservation treatment. An example is the painting 'Elaine' painted by Sophie Anderson, which is going to be included in the exhibition 'The Rise of Women Artists' at the Walker from 23 October 2009. Framing conservator Roy Irlam is using this opportunity to address particular areas of the painting's framework, as access to this painting has been difficult due to its high position on the gallery wall. You can see photos of the de-installation in our Moving stories Flickr set. Handling and transport technician Paula Frew explains just how this large painting was safely removed from display below.

Installing 'Daniel in the Lion's Den' in the Walker

"The handling and transport team use specialised equipment for paintings at this height which include a block and tackle system used to elevate and lower paintings. Each block and tackle section is equipped to take a safe working load of 250kg which are suspended from a lifting strap (SWL 1000kgs) which is attached to a load bearing picture rail.

Another piece of equipment which is an old favourite of the team's goes by the fanciful name of 'Airwolf'. It's a gas operated hydraulic lift that enables technicians to access the heights needed to reach the galleries picture rails.

The most recent addition to the team's repertoire of equipment is an electrical hydraulic lift embellished with the title of 'Leonardo'. This machine takes the weight of one person and can be operated at its base or by the operator in the caged platform area at various heights to move around the gallery area. Unfortunately it doesn't go as high as the 'Airwolf' and is therefore restricted.

The Mobile Elevated Towers named 'Pulpit Towers' are mobile platforms that have replaced ladders due to the new ladder regulations and adhere to the new safety rulings.

The large maroon coloured machine is called the 'Sumner lift'. This machine has been specifically adapted to take a 500kg weight, having counterbalanced weights in the enclosed basket. The machine can access heavy paintings at particular heights on its forks. It works on a ratchet and geared system operated manually, preferably by someone who has eaten a lot of spinach!

The equipment has to be condition checked before use which takes time, so the team started at 7.30am to make headway before the Walker opened to the public at 10am. Once it opened we barricaded off half of the gallery space rather than closing it completely to the public. We found that the visitors were more interested in our operation than they were in the collections!

Before taking down 'Elaine' we removed the painting beneath it 'The Expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden' using the Sumner lift machine. The team then set up the block and tackle for 'Elaine' and removed it safely.

The painting 'Daniel in the Lion's Den' by Riviere has recently returned to the Walker after going out on loan to the British Museum for their 'Babylon' exhibition. We installed this painting in place of 'Elaine' using the block and tackle system, then re-installed 'The Expulsion of Adam and Eve...' beneath it and re-opened the remaining gallery space."

Earlier this month I was lucky enough to be allowed to tag along on a shoot of a video interview with internationally acclaimed artist, Emma Rodgers.

I went with our audio visual team to her house on the Wirral, where she has her studio. They needed to film Emma because her work is going to be included in our forthcoming exhibition ‘The Rise of Women Artists’ , which will be at the Walker Art Gallery from 23 October 2009 - 14 March 2010. This video would be used to create one of the interactive displays for visitors to explore in the gallery and also to make video clips for our website.

The team filmed her working on some of her sculptures, while she answered questions about her inspirations, early career and what it means for her to be a female artist.

It was really interesting to hear about the processes that Emma goes through when creating a sculpture, whether this is of animals or humans. Sketches form the foundation of her work, sometimes from observations at Chester Zoo and also during animal autopsies at Leahurst on the Wirral. Through her work, Emma also travels abroad regularly. This also helps her study of animal’s bodies as she is sometimes lucky enough to hold animals like monkeys. She said she had been able to get to know the character traits of different primates, which also influences the way she depicts them in her sculptures. Emma clearly loves animals as well as finding them inspiring – we even met her pet hare, Mr. Redfern, who she said has helped her think about joints and bone structures in her work.

Emma has also spent time observing and sketching dancers and said she is fascinated by their muscle structures and how their bodies become altered through dancing. As she was answering questions from curator, Robin Emerson, she was building up a sculpture of a woman’s body, piece by piece.

You’ll have to wait until the exhibition opens on 23 October 2009 to see the video clips and find out how that sculpture turned out! In the mean time you can find out more about Emma's work on her website or browse through our Emma Rodgers Flickr set.

Cpt Henry Saalmans OBE. Image courtesy Liverpool Daily Post and Echo

I prefer the cold to the heat – at least you can usually escape into the warmth when temperatures plunge. It is more difficult to get away from excessive heat. However, those who were on the Arctic convoys in the Second World War endured the dual hardships of battling both the enemy and the cold.

More than 100 Allied merchant ships on Arctic Ocean convoys were sent to the bottom by the Germans during a four-year period. Between June 1941 and May 1945 one in every 20 Allied ships (a total of 104) sailing to and from north Russia was sunk.

These figures are comparable with the worst annual sinking rates for 1942 for the much more numerous North Atlantic convoys during the war. The cost of the Russian convoys to the Royal Navy was also high. Among the 22 ships it lost were the cruisers Edinburgh and Trinidad. The German navy lost four surface warships and 31 U-boat submarines.

On both sides casualty rates among crews were often even higher than in the Atlantic due to the bitterly cold Arctic weather. In mid-September 1942 the strongly-protected convoy PQ18 lost one third of its merchant ships (13 out of 39) to German aircraft and U-boats.

Just two months earlier the disastrous PQ17 had lost two-thirds (24 out of 35). The main damage to both convoys had been caused by aircraft. The switching of many of these aircraft to other theatres of war led to much lower losses on later Arctic convoys.

On display in the Battle of the Atlantic gallery in Merseyside Maritime Museum is a picture showing a convoy PQ18 ammunition ship exploding after being attacked by aircraft.

There are wartime mementos of Liverpool-born Captain Henry Saalmans OBE (pictured). He was master of the 3,000-ton Empire Bard which sailed in convoy to Russia in March 1942.

After surviving heavy air attacks, Empire Bard arrived at Murmansk on 6 May. For the next 10 months, in the absence of cargo-handling equipment on shore, she used her own deck cranes to help Allied merchant ships to unload their cargoes.

By the end of her stay in Murmansk, despite being damaged several times by air attacks, she had handled a mammoth 27,000 tons of war supplies for Russia. Captain Saalmans was awarded the Order of the British Empire and the Lloyd’s War medal for his efforts.

Exhibits include these medals along with his sheepskin coat lining worn on Arctic convoys.

A new Maritime Tale by Stephen Guy appears every Saturday in the Liverpool Echo. A paperback – Mersey Maritime Tales (£3.99) – is available from the museum, newsagents, bookshops or from the Mersey Shop website (£1.50 p&p UK).

Sister Marina, Walton Prison. Copyright Liverpool Daily Post and Echo.

There's just over a month to go now until the exhibition 'Liverpool people by Stephen Shakeshaft' opens at the National Conservation Centre. The exhibition will be packed full photographs spanning Stephen's career as photographer and picture editor at the Liverpool Daily Post and Echo.

There are lots of great photos that didn't quite make it into the exhibition itself, like this one, which prompted Stephen to reminisce about the time he spent behind bars - just visiting to take photographs of course.

"I photographed Sister Marina visiting Walton Prison. Her smile and compassion were for all - she was there to comfort those who needed her faith, solace, prayers and hope.

A hand stretched through the bars of a locked cell and a finger tapped me on the shoulder - looking round all I could see were dark penetrating staring eyes and a finger that seemed to be 6 inches long - the other hand came through the bars and I was offered a tin cup full of tea. I hesitated, smiled and took a sip - the warden teased me with a suggestion that there was something else in the cup that I would not want to drink!

One of the most uncomfortable situations I found myself in was covering life in a women's prison. Entering the recreation room I was confronted by more than 20 women prisoners, their jokes and repartee was X certificate - all to the amusement of the Governor, who wore a long white mac with epilettes and black knee length boots!"