Museums

Today I visited Pollock's Toy Museum because it was something my course director Jim recommended. They had toys dating back to the early 1800s and neat little trinkets. Mostly the place kind of creeped me out to be honest hah. I hate dolls so I quickly sped by that room. I did enjoy the paper theatre sets which is why I went. Jim thought it would be good to look at because my book that I'm working on reminds him of them. The museum itself was in this little old house dating back to the late 1800s in the middle of the neighborhood Fitzrovia in central London. I think the structure and ambience of a museum sometimes intrigues me more than what's actually on display. I picked up a pretty awesome present for my niece Grace in the museums store so hopefully she'll enjoy that when I get back :) After the museum I found a place called London Graphic Centre and picked up some supplies. Then I strolled the streets of Fitzrovia and wandered into a book shop. I think I could sit in a library or book store for days on end. There are some many interesting things to read about! Alas I did not buy anything because I am already in the midst of Great Expectations which should take me some time.

The other day I visited the Victoria and Albert museum (aka V&A) which is pretty gigantic. So gigantic that there are 7 miles of galleries in it. Again, it's a beautiful massive building just packed with all different kinds of art dating back from as early as 3150 BCE. There are plaster castes of Michelangelo's sculptures, including David, and of Trajan's column that's split in two to fit into the room. I found some paintings by Joseph Mallard William Turner that I really liked that were waterscapes, which I am always partial to. I also saw some gorgeous jewelry displayed in a beautifully lit room with a winding glass staircase in the middle. In the entrance hall a massive floating Chihuly sculpture intrigued me as it hung freely. Its blue and green dancing arms made it hard to take your eyes off it. What I really enjoyed in the museum was watching this short video on how they do or how they used to caste bronze sculptures, it was fascinating! And so much work. In the same hallway they had miniature ivory sculptures that of course I would like because I'm obsessed with miniatures. I would have taken pictures of them but my camera died :( The whole museum was so big that it also had kind of an eerie feeling. It may have to do with the fact that not many people were there and almost every exhibit I walked into it was empty but also some of their displays were just poorly lit and uninviting. All in all I enjoyed it though. They had a lovely little book store where I found an awesome book about making useful items out of every day objects. Unfortunately I did not buy it. Below is the Chihuly sculpture.

It was surprisingly nice today, not really warm, but sunny! Which as you probably know is quite unusual. I've been walking around my neighborhood trying to find a good running path but have yet to come upon a good one.