Week of wonder, Day 2

Next up, a visit to 2 Temple Place, newly opened in London, near Somerset House. Owned by the Bulldog Trust, whose remit is to bring the collections from regional museums to a wider audience. The first exhibition in on William Morris, with pieces from the currently closed Morris museum in Walthamstow.  It could be argued that Walthamstow hardly fits the definition of regional, but that is nit picking.
This house and current exhibition is really worth a visit if you like eccentricity, wood carving and stained glass. The house has plenty of these, starting from the cherubs on the phone at the entrance




to the gilded ship on the weathervane on the roof.







Besides the wonders of the house, the Morris exhibition is very good, with more of my favourite pieces upstairs than down. There are the working drafts of some of Morris' most famous designs, shown from initial pencil sketches through to fully coloured working proofs for printing or stitching. The stained glass is well exhibited, but unfortunately covering up one of the windows of the house.
From there, braving the circling helicopters, on to Somerset House and a display of uses for Forgotten Spaces in London. This really uses the lower, forgotten parts of Somerset House well and has some intriguing design ideas.










Some more craft stimulation in Somerset House itself, with crazy ceilings and light fittings


A temporary shop of British craft , with

Tina Vlassopulos, ceramics



Beautiful paper cuts by Sarah Raven

Eerie and beautiful vases by Catherine Gray

Uncanny ceramics by Koji Shiraya

David Lewis, fun kitchen ware

Taisir Gibreel, beautiful scarves

Jo Newman glass

Jo Davies, ceramics and then covetable jewellery from Claire Wood, and Jessica Jewellery ( which look much more delicate in real light)
Another visually stimulating day, and hopefully I'll get more to grips with the formatting of the blog on the Mac soon.