Adorn: Behind the Bling

At Colchester Museums preparations are in full swing for our upcoming exhibition Adorn: Jewellery, the Human Story. The exhibition will explore the hidden stories of personal adornment, from Bronze Age beginnings to modern makers, and feature Colchester artefacts, loans from partners including the British Museum and work by contemporary Essex jewellers.

Days away from opening the exhibition, we’d like to share some of the special behind-the-scenes work that has gone into preparing for this dazzling exhibition.

Our Conservators have been checking all of the objects to make sure they are suitable for display and carrying out any necessary cleaning and treatments. This can involve simple cleaning with alcohol, as with the gold ring above. It can also involve stabilisation, as with this flaking archaeological iron punch:

Or assembling objects, such as stringing together these beautiful carved jet beads into a necklace: 

Our Curators have been busy finalising the exhibition’s interpretation: a variety of text from wall panels, to case and object labels. They have also been finalising case layouts and selecting mounts for the objects in conjunction with Conservation. When doing this we consider both the need for beautiful, well-balanced case designs that visitors will enjoy with the need for mounting objects in a way that supports them securely. 

And finally, our Exhibitions team is hard at work preparing the exhibition space, the display cases, the object labels and the graphics for the exhibition to bring it all together. 

Are you excited yet? We are! Come see it all for yourself 27 July 2019 to 16 February 2020 at Colchester Castle. There is no additional charge for exhibition entry beyond the usual castle admission fee. We also have a bookable series of Curator-led talks and special events, including activities for children and drinks nights for adults if you want to treat yourself to something special. We hope to see you there.