I have spent this weekend sewing and visiting the Waterhouse exhibit at the Royal Academy of the Arts. There is a major retrospective of his works there. He had been an academician at the turn of the century. His work is very romantic, often including knights being seduced by fairies, sirens calling sailors into the water, mermaids brushing their hair, pagan gods, and Green mythological characters. His work also was inspired by the poetry of Keats and Tennyson.

His work was so beautiful, I went around it twice. Like the sailors in the pictures, I didn't want to tear my eyes away from such beauty.

I would be the first to say that art should not just be about pretty pictures to hang on walls, but I recently went to another Summer Exhibition preview evening at the Royal Academy and this was the best work of art there -

The dessert table. The champagne table was pretty good too, but couldn't sneak a shot of that.

The Summer Exhibition is supposed to be a showing of the public works of art alongside work of the Academicians. However, the work of art from the public is extremely limited. Believe me, I've tried to get in. Not bitter or anything. I think the Royal Academy asks for public submissions because they receive a non-refundable while the acceptance is like 1%.

Only for my dear readers, I snuck my camera out and took a few shots of the art. This is a monkey picture scrawled by Tracy Emin which seems to have sold like crazy (indicated by the red dots). Now come on, how can that compare to the Waterhouse works that happen to be in the next room?

Thank you Clare of Clare's Crafts for the lovely blog award, but I will refrain from passing it on (and including it on my site permanently) because I am having difficulty keeping up with working, blogging, and crafting. Just wanted to mention Clare because it was reading her site that gave me the inspiration to raise money for the Royal Marsden. Check out her blog to read her story.

V&A Fashion Collection

The Victoria & Albert museum has a wonderful fashion collection that is constantly changing. In one showcase, you'll see Edwardian dresses. In the next, hand crocheted dresses from the 60's. The below photo doesn't do the dress justice, but everything is low lighted and no flash photography is allowed, so hard to capture a good photo. The dress is made up of hand crocheted flowers in bright colored yarn, some of which are three dimensional flowers. It must've taken hours to complete and I can't even crochet a doily!

Princess Diana's Dresses

This is one of Princess Diana’s dresses that’s housed in the fashion collection of the V&A. I had to do a post on this alone because I was so amazed at all of the hand work that went into sewing all of the pearls on the dress and jacket. What really stunned me was the fact that even inside the collar, pearls of all sizes were sewn. Surely this mustn’t have been comfortable for her to wear, but who needs comfort when you want maximum impact. There were also tons of clear sequins sewn onto the fabric amidst the pearls. Seeing the dress up close, I really did realize just how tall the princess used to be. The dress alone was almost as tall as I was!

Victoria & Albert Museum

The Sackler Centre for arts education at the V&A is now open! If you’re coming to London, make sure to check out what’s happening here. They have workshops, classes, lectures, and sometimes even walk in demonstrations. When I went, one of the artists in residence was teaching whoever came through the door how to make wire twisted jewellery for free. She was so helpful I enquired about taking classes, but unfortunately, she’ll soon be leaving and another artist will be taking her place. They have children’s activities too and if they would like to donate their art, it was being added to a chain or art at the museum. I made a wire sculpture for myself to clip on a necklace and one for the chain. How would you like your art to be displayed at the V&A?

Twisted wire sculptures

The Chain of Art.
Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Is your hair thinning? Falling out in clumps?

Worry no more. Cover your head in crystals. This guy, Philip looked amazing on Friday night at the V&A. The event - Nadja Swarovski, the great-great granddaughter of the Swarovki crystal empire was there giving a talk about the history of her family and business.

Her great-great-grandfather's attitude was "Diamonds were for royalty. I'll take the rest of the world" and that he did.

Did you know the dress Marilyn Monroe wore to sing Happy Birthday Mr. President was covered in Swarovski crystals? What about Dorothy of the Wizard of Oz's ruby slippers? Those were Swarovski too. Audrey Hepburn's tiara in Breakfast at Tiffany's. Yep, that too.

The crystals weren't sold under the Swarovski brand name back then, but thanks to the late Isabella Blow, she introduced Swarovski into the fashion world and they started branding the name. From Zac Posen to Christopher Kane, Swarovski believes very strongly in supporting young talent. They support Runway Rocks within the jewellery industry where new designers create the ultimate catwalk jewellery piece. She said the company was open to being approached by young talent, so if you have a portfolio of work using crystals - be it dresses, jewellery, chandeliers, etc. check out their site and give them a call.

With so much talk about the crystals, I can't wait to start making a new turquoise and fuchsia crystal necklace, but first, I must finish the other projects I've started. The matryoshka doll from the last post is just about done and will be featured in our upcoming Christmas issue so stay tuned.

p.s. - The Titanic blue heart crystal necklace - Swarovski too!

Victoria & Albert Museum

These were some of the magnificent sculptures at the V&A today.