while I was in DC for the Apollo 50th anniversary celebrations I spent the day
at Smithsonian exhibits Smithsonian exhibits plans designs and builds
exhibits for many of the Smithsonian museums and offices that create public
facing exhibitions one of their model makers is willow Collins an
extraordinary young maker who treated me to her fascinating backstory willow this
is your desk am i right yeah why don't you tell me what you did here and I
heard that you were tenacious in your application for this dog yeah I I
actually was an intern at the Natural History Museum okay
high school and I really wanted to be a forensic pathologist which is why I went
for that specific exhibit and when I got there I started looking around and I
thought to myself wow I actually really want to make this this is so much more
my alley I grew up in the back of the theater set my mom was a seamstress and
my dad was a contractor so we are always building models as kids and everything a
lifetime of making okay and so I actually went to college with the hopes
of working for the Smithsonian making exhibits so you're that grown then yeah
you were built to do this yep I grew up here when did you start I started I was
an intern I was tenacious I was an intern about just a year ago okay and I
got hired on in October so it's been almost a year since I've been here and
it's incredible every day it has it exceeded your expectations you know what
really exceeded my expectation is it wasn't just the scope of the work and
how interesting it is but the people who work here the skills and the backgrounds
and the intelligence and kindness of the people here really made it you know any
job can be oh I thought I was gonna love it but if the people aren't what you
want then it's never gonna really fulfill your dream and also I have found
that no matter how great the job is and lots of jobs are great it's always tough
yeah even the best job in the world it's the hardest
job in the world is really giving and the people make the difference yes they
do so you find that you find the the skill base here you find a lot of
generosity people sharing their skills their techniques their institutional
knowledge absolutely and the fact that they come from so many backgrounds makes
it that much better because there's always someone who's like oh yeah I did
that
so what specific kind of making did you study in college and how is that applied
here so far so I was actually a traditional sculptor iwase wood and clay
mostly but when I came here I actually had to teach myself in the three months
that I was here how to use 3d modeling oh okay and I managed to produce three
models for the opening of the ten-year Sant ocean hall and so I came in right
at the right time and it was fascinating I think I saw one of your snails it's
not an early test of one of your snails all right yeah yep the Karen area that
one was really fascinating because it's I love the problem-solving that comes
with model making and having to make things in different parts and figure out
how they all piece together and it's not just oh you print it together you know
you have to really suss out how they all come together like a puzzle piece and
you enjoy that talked to me about what you're doing here because I love brass
and it looks like you're making something that I'm particularly fond of
which is maybe brass mounts for Museum things yeah okay talk to me about this
that is actually something I didn't realize would be so interesting was
mount making because the whole point of mount making is you never want anyone to
know you were there it's like bright magic right and but it's also got to
hold these priceless objects yes securely and not damage them or dent
them right yeah and and each object is its own curious new little adventure
that you go on and it I love even working on massive amounts of them
versus one specific one it's all changing your mindset about workflow and
about basically any of the problem-solving that you have to put
together with it and so yeah I am doing some mounts and these actually are
pretty simple ones that you know once you get into
okay so here's a question let's say you're making a mount for something and
let's say this piece of this roll of tape is some priceless American artifact
you know kojak's wallet or something and you've got to make a mount for it it's
not like they're gonna bring you codex while it would just put it on your desk
and let you work with it for a day so how do you make something to the exact
size of something you're not allowed to you shouldn't be touching so what they'd
really love to do is say here's the measurements can you just making like
well but objects don't aim so well do that they don't and every different
objects material affects how you're able to mount it and where it is in the in
the exhibit changes how it's going to be mounted so usually it's a lot of begging
becoming measures if someone holds it well you don't touch it and measure it
out but I kind of like that too this is a case also where some are you bringing
in some 3d printing and scanning techniques where they could bring you it
scan or casting of the object - Mel yeah we've actually done a few worked off
with a few different scans sometimes you take a scan and you alter it - mix it
together sometimes it's taking a scan and printing it and then making your
mount based off of the scan right and that really is a huge part of what we do
now especially with our digitization office right now they're more of making
digital assets so that we can further disperse that information to people
right but it has this ancillary benefit for you yes so we can take these then we
get all different qualities of scans sometimes we will go and scan that's
actually a quite a lot of the work that we do now yeah is going to scan these
really priceless objects and have curators breathe down your neck which is
fine they're always the most interesting now that would also seem to me to lead
to a circumstance tell me if this has happened where you've scanned something
you have a cast a print of it you make your mount for it and it's time to bring
the two together the real thing in your mount and they still don't quite fit
that's really I guess my mount is the one that suffer he's you know I tell
people that for me making stuff it used to be physical but now the
beginning part is much more mental like I do have to have the object in my head
and what you're describing is a really precise and institutionally important
way you have to have the object in your head because you have to think through
I'm making a thing that someone else these things are all gonna have to come
together in a way that's still safe in archival yep that's not trivial no it's
not trivial and we've worked with some really incredible rare objects that even
sometimes I can't believe they're even letting me breathe on this if you have
an example I'd love to hear what we got to mount Thomas Jefferson's writing
table that they believe he wrote part of the Constitution so you're there in the
presence of this table yeah and just a couple hundred years ago this guy sat
there wow that's amazing it was the one he traveled with as well
and it was really it's these objects you know seeing pictures of them it doesn't
do it justice and even seeing it behind glass doesn't do justice of the weight
and the energy that you feel just being around something that you know has so
much significance and that was really also what pulled me into the museum
world was it felt like it was doing something the education aspect of it it
made me feel like that work had significance in some way even if it is
something that you know it's hard to you can't always talk shop with everyone
about like let me tell you about what I braised it is great I'm noticing in your
skill base in addition to you being able to make things handily that you are
excellent at communication I mean it strikes me that like you're you are
invested in the teaching mission here as well as just as well as the making part
of I guess you would call it the tenacity of when I wrote in for my
internship basically what I did was saved up a bunch of money had to maybe
stop paying for some other things and took a huge leap of faith and quit my
job to do the internship full-time here I didn't really know what it was going
to come out of it but I wrote I took a friend's advice and she said you know
what even if you sound kind of you should really write from the heart
when you write up your your application and I did and I think I used the word
the Smithsonian is a national treasure but you know I've been here a year and I
I still really believe that I really believe in what we do here and to work
behind the scenes to get into the meat of what it is and find that this
institution with this incredible reputation owns up to it every level and
to feel respected and appreciated in my job around these people who are willing
to share so much passion and information with me has been really incredible well
I am so inspired by your example thank you so much ank you give me a tour of
your desk here and good luck - thank you thanks for three bye