The Nelson Atkins in Kansas City is hiring a Fabrication Technician. Here's a link to the job posting. They're also hiring a Lighting Technician as well. https://www.indeed.com/viewjob?jk=9cee79cde06f8c05&utm_campaign=google_jobs_apply&utm_source=google_jobs_apply&utm_medium=organic

My museum is doing a compensation study, so I decided to look around and see what the proper salaries for mountmakers are. Mount making is such a niche profession I wonder what they will compare my pay rate to. At least at my institution, the mount maker has more responsibilities than a preparator does and I've been struggling to find something to compare salary ranges with. The 2019 AAMD salary study only listed Associate Preparator (mean 44.5k) and Chief Preparator (mean 61k). I found this survey very interesting since in goes in depth by region and operating budget, if you have not taken a look at it I encourage you to do so. https://aamd.org/our-members/from-the-field/salary-survey-2019 The 2019 self reporting salary google doc that was circulation in 2019 only had two mount makers salaries listed. One salary was reported as being 60k at the Getty and another was for a institution in Philadelphia for 46k. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/14_cn3afoas7NhKvHWaFKqQGkaZS5rvL6DFxzGqXQa6o/edit#gid=0 Are there any additional resources regarding pay scales around?

I recently found a low heat thermoplastic used by costumers called Worbla. I did a quick search on conservation wiki and didn't find any results for Oddy testing. I was wondering if any of you have used it for mount making purposes. It seems like it requires only very low heat to activate and little to no safety gear. It could be a quick alternative to heat forming acrylic sheeting if it passes the Oddy tests. They have a few different products including a brown sheet version that can be painted, a transparent sheet material, as well as castable pellets. Some of the tutorials show people molding it directly to their saran wrapped skin, which is both alarming and intriguing. Here's a link https://www.worbla.com/