Power of Making - V&A

Although I've always loved handmade crafts I've never actually made it to the V&A museum - horrifying I know! But when i saw they had an exhibition called The Power of Making i knew that was the one for me, and it didnt let me down. It was only a small exhibition, in one room, but i spend nearly 2 hours in there looking at all the amazing items. From incredibly technical pieces of mechanical engineering to bespoke shoes and incredibly detailed anatomy models of animal, i was amazed that everything could be grouped together in one exhibit, but it could. Everything there was handmade by incredibly creative and talented craftsmen and women. It was actually really humbling as the level of skill was just inmmense, far beyond anything i could even dream of.
Some of my favourite items were the alphabet pencils, where each letter of the alphabet was painstakingly carved into its own pencil lead (picture on the exhibit homepage), the dissected frog made from lego, disgusting and fascinating all at once and the Widow dress made with over 10,000 dressmaker pins, which at a distance i thought was fluffy or maybe furry and it was only when i got close up that I realised every bit of what i though was fluffy/furry thread was in fact a pin!
A really lovely 2 hours of my life, in fact so nice that i didnt leave enough time to go round any other bits of the museum - definitely an excellent excuse to go back again this year!