On my last full day in London I took the above-ground train to Vauxhall and the tube to Green Park. From there it’s just a short stroll to the Royal Academy on Piccadilly. Choices! I paid £5 to go in to the Library and Print Room to see ‘White’, ‘a project which sets objects in dialogue with one another and with the spaces around them.’

‘White’ also refers to the title of Edmund de Waal’s latest book ‘The White Road’ which I am much looking forward to reading. It will be fascinating exploration of another of his passions, like his earlier ‘The Hare with Amber Eyes’ which was a family biography based on a collection of superb Japanese netsuke. This one takes us on a worldwide search for white porcelain clay. Can’t wait to get my hands on a copy. Plus I came across a fine picture book of pots he’s selected, called ‘The Pot Book’. I probably have enough pot books but it was a good browse.

Photographs are strictly forbidden in the RA’s library so I simply enjoyed finding the white objects, such as a Greek statue and Kazimir Malevich’s Suprematist Teapot,  which de Waal had installed alongside items already owned by RA, such as Turner’s porcelain palette. It was a quiet contemplative hour in a historic space. The project closes on Jan 3rd. 2016.

I chose not to pay another £16 to wander through the huge Ai Weiwei show (which is now over) and I may regret that. The courtyard outside RA is filled with his trees assembled from cut trees and a carved marble stuffed chair.

Instead I hopped on a bus to South Kensington to do what I really wanted to do – once again spend the afternoon on the sixth floor of the Victoria & Albert Museum and do some Christmas shopping in their wonderful gift shop! The whole sixth floor is a potter’s paradise of ceramics, from all around the world and all periods of history. An afternoon just whets the appetite! So again, I didn’t go to a much-recommended show of Indian textiles and will probably regret that too.

I spent my time in the twentieth century ceramics rooms, both studio and factory-made pots, admired the contemporary purchases in the rotunda, and revisited a room which displays some of the methods of making pots. I’ll complete this blog with my photos of the Edmund de Waal installation in the rotunda and his small vitrine of unusual dark-coloured vessels.

Then I’ll put together an album of my selected pots since 1900 for my next blog, plus tell you who I met in the studio pottery room!