TLWS is very proud to have supported the creative and conservation lighting design for an exhibition at in the Blue Gallery at Brantwood, John Ruskin's home in Coniston.

Tasked with working to a very limited 30 lux throughout the space, TLWS skilfully worked to balance, harmonise and bring out as much shimmer, glimmer and richness from the minerals on display from John Ruskin's story.

The work continued by adjusting the lighting already in situ with 3D printed clips and adapters. These adjustments heavily enhanced the space, as did the precise layering and focusing of the existing lighting that was completed.

A big thank you to the team at UFO lighting for support in replacing some of the existing case lighting to create a fantastic display of a binded New Testament from the 12th Century treasure.Which the end result I believe clearly met the clients request to 'make it feel like it's floating'.

About:

The exhibition runs from 3rd July – 25th October 2026 in the Blue Gallery at Brantwood and
curated by Professor Sandra Kemp, The Ruskin and Howard Hull, Brantwood.

Curatorial Description of the Exhibition:

Geology and mineralogy, rather than painting or literature, were John Ruskin’s earliest and consistent love. His father observed, ‘From boyhood he has been an artist, but he has been a geologist from infancy.

As a child growing up in London, Ruskin played in a small gravelly stream in the grounds of his house where he modelled his world in miniature. From this attention to small things he built his understanding of the world. When he was twelve, to encourage his interest, his father purchased a small set of semi-precious minerals from the dealer Daniel Crosthwaite of Keswick, Cumberland, for 5 shillings. Fifty years later, Ruskin wrote, ‘No subsequent possession had so much influence on my life.’ He became a Fellow of the Geological Society in 1840.

By the end of his life, Ruskin had built one of the largest privately owned collections of minerals in the world, the legacy of which now populates many important mineral collections today. Ruskin’s considerable knowledge of minerals was informed by the latest scientific developments. But he was also captivated by the symbolic meanings they embodied in our culture, and he pursued this in his writings and teaching. In parallel to his intellectual knowledge, he developed a personal mythology which drew richly on astrology, heraldry, folklore and art.

Exhibition Leaflet: Treasures of the Earth: The Mineral World of John Ruskin

Exhibition Reference Key: The Breastplate of the Light and Covenant of Life

Brantwood Listing: Treasures of the Earth – Brantwood

John Ruskin’s mineral collection is now split across multiple institutions and this exhibition brings some of them back to Brantwood. Special thanks to Sheffield Museums Trust (Collection of the Guild of St George), John Rylands Research Institute and Library, University of Manchester, the Natural History Museum, London and Somerville College, University of Oxford for lending works from their collections to this exhibition.