Ceramica - galleries and Queen Vicky

This weekend marked the long-awaited opening of the new ceramics galleries at the V&A, with some fun events. I went along on Friday evening - and again on Sunday afternoon.

The galleries are on the 6th floor. Under the dome is an installation by Edmund de Waal.There's a light, bright look replacing the heavy, crowded vitrines -
The blue Egyptian sceptre is about 4000 years old, and the Japanese Jomon pot you can just about see in front of it is even older. (More about Jomon pottery later, perhaps - the British Museum currently has a display of dogu - Jomon figurines.)
At one side of one gallery, behind a glass partition, is the studio of the artist-in-residence, currently Stephen Dixon. There, you could help make a mosaic bust of Queen Victoria. I found my piece and waited my turn ... here she is "before" -
and "after" - spot the difference -
(Yes, it's the glint in her right eye.)

By Sunday afternoon there was hardly anywhere to put more pieces, and they had to be broken up ever smaller -