Glass Dip Pens and Kelmscott Manor

Last wednesday I went for a day out to Kelmscott manor with my mum. Kelmscott was the home of british designer William Morris for many years, after writing my dissertation on his work I have a bit of an obsession, unfortunately you weren't allowed to take photographs inside the house but you can see some of his work from when I visited the William Morris Museum in London here.

It was a lovely sunny day so we wandered around the gardens and I got some photos of the autumn leaves - such lovely colours!

We had a timed entrance so had a look around the gift shop before we went in, you could buy almost anything in some kind of Morris print.

My mum bought me an early birthday present, a venetian glass dip pen and ink set which is absolutely beautiful! 

It holds the ink in the ridges in the glass and it flows really nicely, I haven't used ink in ages so I did a few doodles.

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)