Decorating Frenzy

Tags

1940s, 1940s Christmas, Art, Christmas, Christmas Trees, collection, Decoration, history, make do and mend, photography, tree, volunteer

Many visitors come to Attingham during December to see our spectacular Christmas trees and beautiful flower arrangements.  In order to put this all together a small team of staff and volunteers worked tirelessly through November putting up themed decorations, draping paper chains, and adorning each tree with hundreds of twinkling fairy lights.

We start planning Christmas months in advance to make sure we get every detail right.  This year our theme is a 1940s Christmas. Each Christmas tree inside the Mansion has its own theme that reflects a story about what happened at Attingham and in the wider world during the 1940s.

Putting the lights on the Entrance Hall tree

 

Before we could start putting up decorations we had to move some fragile items in our collection like ceramics and textile chairs due to the high numbers of visitors at this time of year.  We also needed to completely clear the 1830s Dining Room table setting ready for its seasonal redisplay as a 1940s Christmas tea.  We packaged away the fake food on the table, and protected the ormolu centerpieces which we moved to a safe and secure location.

Katie and Holly packing away the Dining Room table

 

The large Axminster carpet in the Dining Room needed to be moved.  First we gave it a very gentle low-suction vacuum to get rid of dust on the surface, then we covered it in acid free tissue paper (for protection)and rolled it in the direction of its pile.  Because of its size we had limited options for storage!  After much debating we decided to house the rolled-up carpet along one wall of the Picture Gallery so that we could have the shutters open in the Dining Room and so that it would not be in people’s way.

Members of the house team rolling up the carpet

 

We also had our talented volunteer flower ladies making displays around the house.  They were based in the Picture Gallery for the last week in November and created flower arrangements of all shapes and sizes for the various rooms in the house, linked in with the themes for each space.

The flower ladies’ base: the Picture Gallery

 

After the chaos of decorating, we had a day to clean up the mess that we had made before the house opened.  We gave everything an extra dust and vacuum, and then we were able to sit down and have a relax after a month of hard work.

The tree in the Inner Library

 

It’s been lovely to hear visitors’ comments about the mansion decorations this year.  You can come and see us through December until Saturday 23rd December.

Thinking of visiting for Christmas next year?  In 2018 we’ll be asking everybody to book tickets to their Mansion visit in advance through the website, so please keep and eye out for more details next year.

 

https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/attingham-park

Christmas is coming

Tags

1940s, 1940s Christmas, Christmas, Christmas Trees, Decoration, Events, history

With Christmas just around the corner, we have started decoration production in the mansion. Considering this year’s theme is 1940s (a time of thriftiness and ‘make do and mend’), we are hand-making a lot of our decorations which means that we had to start early to get them done in time.  We started making at the end of August, and made enough decorations for the 11 sensational trees in the mansion.

Creating paper baubles

As well as the overall 1940s theme throughout the house, each room will have its own more personal theme.  In the Drawing Room the decorations will be inspired by music.  For this tree we made a large treble clef as a tree topper and will decorate the tree with baubles made out of sheet music.  On top of that we have been making metres upon metres of paper chains which we plan on hanging from the ceiling to make it look like a canopy of music.

Papier-mâché tree topper and baubles

The theme for our largest tree in the Picture Gallery is inspired by a girl from Hiroshima called Sadako Sasaki who was affected by the atom bomb dropped on the city at the end of the Second World War.  She heard the ancient Japanese legend that if she made 1,000 origami cranes then she would be able to have a wish.  Unfortunately, she died before her 1,000 were completed, but her classmates continued making them in her memory.  We have spent the past few months making as many paper cranes as we could to decorate our tree which will represent peace and those whose lives were affected by the Second World War.

 

A box of origami cranes

The Inner Library will have the theme of books.  We have acquired some books which cannot be sold from our Second Hand Bookshop, cut out the pages, and turned them into decorations.  This meant that we had different shades of paper on the tree, which really helped to add an interesting effect.  The main decorations for this tree were the lattice baubles which we made by stapling paper together in various shapes.  It was very simple to make and looks really beautiful on the tree.

 

Some of our library bauble prototypes

Other tree themes in the house this year contain our dried flower tree (which our flower team have been drying in preparation), a crystal chandelier theme for the Boudoir, and a 1940s tea party for the Dining Room.

 

A collection of some of the dried flowers

 

Converting a watering can into a tea pot for our Dining Room tree topper

The Mansion reopens on Saturday 2nd December for visitors and the last day of opening will be Sunday 23rd December, so make sure you come along and see all the beautiful festive decorations.  Please see our website for details:

 

https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/attingham-park

https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/attingham-park/whats-on

Copper Cleaning

Tags

collection, conservation, copper, kitchen, pans

With the summer holidays over and done with we decided to make a start on cleaning the copper in our kitchen.  We clean the copper once a year to remove dirt and fingerprints which corrodes the metal.

 

Tarnished copper pans next to a freshly polished pan

 

Finger prints are a big problem with copper, as a good deal of our collection is within reach.  As a shiny and attractive metal, people want to touch our pots and pans, and do so frequently.  This leaves dark tarnished patches on the surface of the copper, and sometimes even fingerprints are left corroded into the pan.

A handprint corroded onto the copper

 

It isn’t just our skin that corrodes the metal though, copper turns dark brown over time which is due to sulphide gases in the air.  This tarnish is a natural protective coat that stops any damage being done to the copper underneath.

The line between tarnished and clean

 

Copper can also tarnish by producing green crusty or powdery spots, which is caused by the presence of moisture, organic acids (like those in our skin), or by other pollutants in the air.  This means that if you keep your copper in a damp place, it will be more likely to tarnish faster and more intensely.

 

A collection of our copper pans and molds. Photograph National Trust Charles Gibson

 

If you wanted to browse Attingham’s collection of kitchen objects, go to:

http://www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk

Select ‘Attingham’ as the property and select ‘Historic Services / Food & Drink preparation’ as the category.