Small Blessings - The Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford

I was asked to take part in a new project based at The Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford. I will be working with a group of adults from Mind (a mental health charity), observing a new collection of amulets,charms and votives which have been donated to the museum. The collection belonged to Adrien de Mortillet (1853-1931) and contains examples from all over the world. I am trying to find out more about de Mortillet, but so far have not been too successful. I do know that he had many careers including a perfumer and a balloonist!

Over 5,000 objects have been donated to the museum, and it is the job of the conservationists to catalogue these and create a database so that they can be easily found in the future. A separate blog has been set up to document this process which can be found here.

http://pittrivers-amulets.blogspot.co.uk

My job is to work with the members of Mind to discover more about these objects and to create our own pieces, which will be exhibited in the museum at the end of the project.
From observing the amulets, charms and votives at the museum they are mainly made out of the following materials:

clay
plaster
wax
natural materials such as seeds, bark, fruit, grasses
parts of animals and human including hearts, bone, teeth and skin
metal
textiles
food

plaster moulds with wax casts

metal charms and amulets

votive offering - clay

magic bundle placed in the village to lay a curse

I decided to try and keep to these materials...although I won't be using any human hearts! Initially, I will be experimenting with plaster moulds, clay, metals and textiles and see where that takes me.
It's an exciting project to be involved in and I am looking forward to seeing what we come up with.