Welcome to London West End WI

Wednesday 2 May 2018

A joyful Spring

Hi all, Melonie here!

Firstly, apologies for the radio silence on this blog – don’t you hate it when work gets in the way of life?! Haha

This year has certainly got off to a great start for our WI. We’ve had some fab meetings and for those who haven’t been able to make it along here’s a little recap:

February we had the informative talk from the British Red Cross.

Book binding fun!
March Claudia a curator from Kensington Palace came to speak about the role of portraits and photography in how we see royal women. Looking back at Elizabeth I forward to Diana Princess of Wales, it was fascinating to see how these women used these forms of media to tell their own story and convey their power. For anyone interested, Diana: Her Fashion Story is on at Kensington Palace until 2019 and new items have recently been added so it’s a great excuse to go. Claudia also spoke about Queen Victoria whose reign saw the move from paintings to photography – the exhibition Victoria Revealed, again at the palace, opened earlier this year and is one not to be missed. If you do go to the palace be sure to try and see the new tiaras and jewels on display, some of which have not been on public display before – a sparkling day out. 

Some more fantastic craft club creations
April was book binding. This has always been popular at craft club so it seemed like a great idea for one of our monthly meetings too! 

Away from craft club and our meetings, there have been some fab events we were invited to attend. When the London Transport Museum held one of their late events, focusing on women in this suffrage year, we offered up rosette making at our stall which was hugely successful – I don’t think we had an empty table all night. Following this we were asked to be a part of boutique store Revival Retro’s Thursdate event. This is a regular event they hold which usually entails trying on, buying things we don’t need but are oh so pretty and a cocktail or too. To coincide with International Women’s month, we were invited along for rosette making again with the lovely Revival ladies, again a great evening! 

The Rodin exhibition
The Rodin exhibition at the British Museum was a fantastic day out once again. We’re hugely lucky that we get complimentary tickets for events at the British Museum, just one of the perks of being a member of our WI! 

This month we will be having a quiz so as well as nibbles to share be sure to bring your grey cells! The next craft club we will be card making so if you've got a birthday or are just super prepared for Christmas, come along and have a go!

In June it is the AGM in Cardiff. I’ll be going along to the meeting and I’m so excited! I’ll be reporting back, both here and in the meeting and I’ll be posting plenty of pictures from the day.

See you all soon!

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