Helping to bring Mammoths to the Museum

If you’ve read my blog before you’ll know I’m mad about mammoths and that I had the privilege of attending the Palaeontology digs at Cerney Wick, the site that was found by Sally and Nev Hollingworth that featured on the BBC documentary Attenborough and the Mammoth Graveyard.

The site is an old quarry owned by The Hills Group, is an old estuary of the river Thames, and also encompasses a section of The Kellaway’s Formation so is a treasure trove of both Ice-age and Jurassic bounty. Since Sally and Nev discovered mammoth remains there is 2016, the site has had several digs. The one featured in the BBC documentary, and then two more arranged and managed with care and plenty of passion by Nev and Sally.

I was lucky enough to visit the 2023 dig on a sweltering August day, where I got to help plaster cast a tusk ready for transportation. In 2024 I attended for much more of the three week dig and loved all of it. From the shared adventure and comradery to the actual digging and being part of an important scientific endeavour and obviously seeing freshly found mammoths!

Nev and Sally being so dedicated and generous with their enthusiasm, knowledge and time decided to exhibit finds from the past two digs, at the charming Corinium Museum in nearby Cirencester. The exhibition opening in February 2025 – only six months after the dig.

 

So it was all hands-on deck – or in this case - fossil and bone, to help prepare and preserve the specimens! Plus find and fabricate suitable often bespoke hand made stands and cases, to both protect the finds, and display for people to view. Also Sally and Nev had the task of inspiring the army of nearly 300 #TuskForce volunteers from the dig, who now were back at work or university, to write, design and information boards for the exhibition. It was a mammoth endeavour!

For my part, I was excused from tasks in preparation and conservation, due to lack of skills. However I wanted to support the herculean effort as part of the #TuskForce team and contribute in any way that was useful.

So being a dab hand with a crayon, and being competent with illustration apps, plus coming from a children’s writers’ perspective, I created Top Trunks with facts about the Proboscidea species we’d found n site. I also made a comic explaining how coprolite is formed from poo to fossil.

I dipped out of my comfort zone too, to make a few more series paleo art illustrations.

But I really wanted to try and bring my experience and what I’d learnt from working in museums and bookshops, to the exhibitions. The first thing I did was compile a list of book recommendations for the souvenir shop, of recently themed appropriate books.

 

I also offered to do a quite/interactive corner, with bean bags, themed books and games. A place for a paleo-pause, or mammoth mediation. To engage people and give an added interactive element. With this is mind I sourced a mammoth print rug, bean bags and (along with Sally H) loads of paleo themed books and games.

 

Lastly I was delighted to have worked with the Corinium Museum’s staff, Caroline and Samatha – to create a series of illustrations for a mammoth trail, to accompany the exhibition. So I whipped out the crayons, and pondered what would a mammoth look like in Tudor attire, or in a toga? As the brief was to do mammoths that tied into the museum’s galleries. It was an absolute blast -barmy in all the best ways.

 

At last on one rainy Monday morning in February the mammoth task of assembling the exhibition began.

It was an amazing (exhausting) day, with seven members of the #Tuskforse team coming together under the guidance of Nev and Sally to curate literal truck loads of treasure.

 

In the morning when faced with four stark white walls and boxes of bones and fossils, it was a tad daunting, but with the Hollingworth’s signature enthusiasm and exhibition gradually took shape. The sheer scope of the task and the hours of effort put into the preparation is evident. It is an amazing (I know I’m bias) and excellent exhibition. It is well worth a visit during its month-long run. Plus is on during half term!

 

The exhibition runs from 15th February to 15th March 2025, visit here for more details.

Going out of your comfort zone

Going out of your comfort zone

Sometimes you need for the sake of sanity and progress to push yourself out of your comfort zone. It is easy to stay firmly where you feel safe, and my safe is writing books for children and doodling – mostly mammoths. But recently I’ve pushed myself out of the realms of comfortable – with a little nudge from another mammoth mad person who shares my first name – and into the world of paleo art.

This has in full disclosure included some of my more usual style illustrations of cute cuddly mammoths including making a Top Trunks display boards based on extinct Proboscidea, and comic strips on how poo fossilises and turns into coprolite. But also into something I haven’t done since studying fine art at university or perhaps my art foundation course, which is nearly three decades ago, creating accurate drawings. In this case studies of fossils and what the animals the fossils came from would have looked like when they were alive.

 

The work is considerably more intricate and time consuming, than crating cuddy mammoths, but it is as enjoyable as it is frustrating. I cracked out the good pencils rather than my usual wax crayons and got started. It was a learning curb. I found it easy to get so focused on the details, that I would forget to step back to ensure it was working as a whole, so I had to remind myself to do this at regular intervals.

 

I also felt mammoth amounts of imposter syndrome, with my brain constantly telling me that’ I am no good’. And that ‘I shouldn’t be doing it’. it got so bad that I ventured up into the attic and got down a framed print, that I had brought for my son when he was doing his GCSE art, saying ‘An expert in something was once a beginner,’ and put it beside me whilst I worked. It was to remind me that although I may have a degree in fine art, have been a professional artist, and have a lot of people who are very fond of my mammoths, I am only starting out as a paleo artist – and that I shouldn’t be too harsh on myself.

 

In general I think that the finished pieces vary in quality, but I am proud of them, especially some of the later ones which shows improvement especially considering I only embarked on this endeavour in August

So my point is that this has shown me just how important and healthy it is to explore places out of your comfort zone.