Game Of Thrones Tapestry

      So at the beginning of May I booked a last minute trip to Belfast with my boyfriend. We spent our first day there wandering around near Queen's University where there is a wonderful Botanical garden and the Ulster Museum, both free to enter. Games of Thrones has brought a huge boost to Northern Ireland's tourism, there are many different locations you can visit that were used for filming. We did our own little road trip to a few of these amazing places along the coast and it was pretty amazing. 

      Tourism Ireland has created a Tapestry which is currently on show at The Ulster Museum, it is 77m long and still growing, with new sections being added as the new season is shown! I couldn't believe the sheer scale of the tapestry, it shows the storyline as it develops (so there may be some spoilers if you read too much into the images below). 

      The sheer details of all the embroidery is really beautiful. Some of it is pretty grim, I have only watched a few episodes of Game of Thrones (don't judge me!) but I remember some of the deaths being pretty graphic and gruesome. 

      I would highly recommend a visit if you happen to be in the area, the rest of the museum has a lot to see too! Let me know what you think. 

William Morris Museum and Gallery

A lot of my friends know I have a love for William Morris after basing a large chunk of my dissertation on his work. If you do not know anything about him already he was a British designer who focused on bringing back a high level of quality in design after the industrial revolution. Morris's designs are heavily focused on nature and his wallpapers and fabric designs are still being printed today.

This museum is in Walthamstow in North London, you can reach it by getting the tube to Walthamstow centre and either walking for 20 mins or getting a bus. The museum is free entry and is hosted in the house where he was born, there are over 10,000 objects in the collection ranging from fabrics and pattern designs, to books  and metalwork.

I took some sneaky photos of things I liked!

These were sketches of designs for fabric and wallpaper, it was really interesting to see the original pencil line next to the fully worked colour.

Wood block for printing

Wrapping paper on sale in the shop

And however strange it is to take a photo of a toilet I couldn't resist!

I also took some photos of the beautiful gardens which were full of so many different types of flowers. Would be a great place to go and sketch (i was feeling lazy so just took pictures for later reference)

santas grotto

If anybody is in plymouth right now I suggest you go down to the Plymouth City Museum where they are have a santas grotto mainly decorated and designed by Plymouth Illustration students!! 

I Mostly did lots of snowflake painting and also had the idea of having 3D structures on the floor lit up by lights. These are some work in progress photos, I have yet to see it fully finished as I was going home for christmas!