I have to admit that I am such a ignoramus that my favourite part of a museum is often the shop. But when it comes to the Victoria & Albert Museum it becomes a toss-up between the shop and the restaurant.

I'm visiting today to meet up with a friend, and incredibly talented beader, Francesca Walton. Francesca won 'Best in Show' at the 2011 Bead Dreams awards for her entry 'I Will Rise'. You can see it here and the full view here. She also won a gold medal in the 2009 Fire Mountain Gems Awards for a piece you can see here and where you can also read more about her.

Francesca was over in the UK this time for a reunion of the musical she was in the original cast of: Hair. What a woman!

Over a delicious lunch (there is no photographic evidence of any cakes which may or may not have been consumed) we talked about a wide-ranging variety of subjects which included: reliquaries, ancient myths, beading stitches, psychology, families, how women relate to one another, making your own clothes, aging (the good and bad points), playing bridge, punctation (specifically my poor use of it due to lack of knowledge), books, pens and surely a million other things.

Frances told me a lot about myths, specifically Hannya, Demeter and Persephone, all of whom I knew nothing about and by the end I was gripped and eager to learn more. You can see Francesca's use of the image of Hannya in her 'I Will Rise' piece. The V&A have a Hannya mask but it is in storage so you have to contact them at least a month in advance of a visit to be sure of seeing it.

After our long talk it was time to head to the place we'd both been looking forward to visiting: the gift shop.

The shop here is always worth a visit as they sell a wide range of items including lots of wonderful jewellery. I rarely leave with nothing. First up was the postcards where to our pleasure there was one of the Hannya mask. Then it was a walk around the rest of the shop admiring, chatting and trying on before it was time for me to head off to skating practise modelling my new radish brooch.