Inspiration at RAMM, Exeter
One of my favourite places to visit for inspiration is the wonderful Royal Albert Memorial Museum or RAMM as it is affectionately known as by locals in Exeter. This award winning museum reopened in 2011 after a major redevelopment project that resulted in the museum being awarded the Art Fund Prize for Museum of the Year in 2012.
No trip to Exeter was complete for my small children unless they were able to visit Gerald, the museum's iconic giraffe. Nowadays I visit alone and spend hours immersed in the displays of natural and human historical artifacts.
The Walter Percy Sladen Collection
This collection of echinoderms (starfish, sea urchins and sand dollars) displayed in splendid mahogany and glass cases have resulted in a new series of designs for my jewellery, notably some bold brooches - heavily patterned and coloured with verdigris to seem as though they had just been liberated from the sea bed.
Butterflies and birds
Other favoured galleries at RAMM include the Fly on the Wall and In Fine Feather displays of a myriad of colourful butterflies and 140 bird species from around the world, while an impressive array of ethnographic displays of costume and manufactured artifacts draw me in with their incredible detail and ingenious construction.
Why not visit the museum website and explore for yourself. You’ll be amazed!