Crocheted coral reef

No sewing today, as I took advantage of one of my last days of freedom before school finishes to go up to town and do some stuff without kids - first thing I did was hit the Vilhem Hammershoi exhibit at the Royal Academy - which I thought was great, but then I was a fan to start with. Although I often drag my kids whinging through art museums expose my children to the stimulating world of fine art, I usually avoid the special paying exhibitions as the kids get bored before I feel I've had my money's worth (to be fair to my kids, they actually like art, and don't really whinge, bless them). However, having a child-free day, I not only splashed out for the ticket to the exhibit, but also purchased the additional audio tour - and listened to the whole commentary except on little extra bit about one of Hammershoi's patrons, which I couldn't be bothered to pay attention to. Anyway, it was a great exhibit & I enjoyed it muchly.

I then spent some time wandering through London - up through Picadilly Circus into my old Soho stomping ground (I used to work there), including a quick stop in a nice art shop where I bought one or two things (see below!), a quick bite for lunch (sushi), then a stroll back down through the mildly sleazy parts of Soho (all the sex shops & shows seem a bit dingy and sad in the bright sunshine - I'm sure they must be more exciting at night - I hope so, at any rate!), through Chinatown, around Covent Garden (not through it - too many tourists), across Waterloo Bridge, and a quick stop in the Royal Festival Hall, where there's a crocheted coral reef currently occupying the project space.










It was kind of fun - not worth a trip on its own, unless you are a crochet fanatic, but certainly worth a small detour if you are passing in the general direction.

And on the right, my goodies - some watercolour paper, on sale, not for watercolouring, at which I would be terrible, as I can't draw or paint, but for ATC bases and postcard backs, and so on. Also some inks, also on sale, which I intend to use in combination with said paper to create nice backgrounds for stuff. Found a new push mould I don't have which I thought might come in handy - it's an alphabet - I love my face ones, but most of the other ones I've seen are things which, for me, are not that useful - teddy bears, dolphins, and so on. I'd love some sculptural ones, general textures and motifs, etc. A couple of packs of fimo with metallic effect, for mixing (I need to do some more faces and words soon - and letters, I guess) and two sheets of coloured acetate, which I thought might be useful for ATCs/PCs.

In all, a lovely day out, very civilised and grown up.