Even though this brooch was nestling right in the middle of a box labeled Jet, jet it certainly was not. It was something quite different – a labour of love in shells and wire, masquerading as a beautiful bunch of white flowers.
‘Edelweiss’, said one of my fellow museum volunteers, and Julie Andrews instantly sprang into my head at full volume. I banished the thought just as quickly as it had appeared.
Whichever white blossoms the maker was thinking of as he or she clustered the shells and twisted the silvery wire into a brooch, blossoms is what they are. A subtle, exquisite transformation. Next to it, my own handmade flowers and insects still hover as shells in the zone of seaside kitsch. This brooch, though, I would have worn and felt like I was wearing diamonds.
This text accompanied my choice of archive object from the collection in an exhibition at Bromley Museum Orpington (2014) where I worked as a volunteer. The exhibition, The Best of Bromley, was one of the last before the museum was closed due to lack of funding. It housed the collection of John Lubbock, archeologist, neighbour and friend of Darwin.
thisandthat 
How exquisite!