My parents are visiting London for a day so I met them early so we can cram as much into the day as possible.

First up 2 of us head to the Victoria and Albert Museum to see their plywood exhibition. I saw this a couple of weeks ago but it was still as good the second time around.

Then we wandered through a few galleries looking at silver and furniture until we came upon this fabulous sculpture by Franz Xaver Messerschmidt.

Lastly I wanted to see the finalists in the Woman's Hour Craft Prize which, when it was launched, sold itself as:
'It aims to find and celebrate the most innovative and exciting craft practitioner/s or designer-maker/s resident in the UK today, in the most comprehensive prize of its kind.
The prize will reward originality and excellence in concept, design and process and sindividuals who have demonstrably contributed to craft practice in the last five years' (their words and spelling).

Sounds great doesn't it - finally someone recognising that crafts doesn't need to be a lesser cousin of art and people who have developed their skills will be recognised even though they don't work in paints or sculpture.

Except it was clear from the exhibit (crammed into a tiny space which serves as a corridor) that this was rubbish.

The work was good and interesting (what little there was - seriously it's only worth going to see just so you can see how tiny, unsignposted and forgotten it is) and the makers obviously talented BUT it seemed that every single finalist had a postgraduate degree, MA, BA etc from an arts university.
That meant that not a single finalist did not go to university to study art. When you think of a craftsperson is that what you think of?
These were artists - just not painters.
And they were already celebrated artists with commissions around the World, major exhibitions and work sold at Sothebys.

I went back and read their spiel about it again and then their FAQ and something soon became apparent. It was never going to be open to or interested in the entire world of craftspeople. They specifically said:

"Applicants should be able to demonstrate the impact of their practice upon their discipline or upon wider audiences through the regular public exposure of new work or other activities. This might include (this is not a definitive list):

• participation in major group show(s)
• solo exhibition(s)
• representation by a major gallery or agent
• significant public commission(s)
• residencies in public institutions
• awards or prizes
• reviews or features in recognised publications
• acquisitions of your work by a significant public or private collection(s)
• practice-led research
• development of innovative techniques or processes
• binging craft skills to an arena outside of the traditional craft sector
• •other forms of public engagement

So it only wanted to 'find and celebrate' those who have already been found and celebrated? You can only win their award if you've already won an award? You can only be in the exhibition if you've already had an exhibition?

They were never actually interested in craftspeople - only arts disguised as crafts and only in showcasing people whose work had already been showcased. All of that is fine - but don't bill yourself saying:

"Over the past 70 years Woman's Hour has championed and celebrated both the craft of listeners and of craft practitioners and in that tradition the launch of the prize coincides with the celebrations for their anniversary year."

When it's not what you mean. Adding such limitations to the criteria meant they were only ever going to be able to choose artists who had already 'been found' and not 'find' new ones.

But then as soon as I knew it was anything to do with the Victoria and Albert museum I shouldn't have been surprised. This is where the curator of the jewellery gallery literally said to me (when they opened their new jewellery gallery 9 years ago) "No-one is interested in beads".

I despair at the close-mindedness of these people and their unwillingness to look beyond their small circle into what is being made and created by different people in the crafts world.

One day I hope it will change but if the people purporting to be interested in that change aren't actually interested then change may be some way off.

I left dispirited and downhearted but thankfully we were heading to somewhere beautiful and peaceful - Chelsea Physic Garden.

I have passed by here and never been in but I knew I had a connection to it as back in the 1980s my dad had worked on the refurbishment of the greenhouses and it was lovely to take him back there.

This is a lovely place, an oasis of peace and beauty, and I was glad to finally get to visit it after so many years of meaning to.