Setting Goals

At the start of 2011 I set myself a goal: to have some work exhibited at a gallery. I thought this would focus my attention, not only starting new projects, but actually finishing them for a deadline.

It worked! My wall hanging was exhibited at the Grassington Festival 17th June - 2nd July where it filled the entrance stairwell at the Town Hall. I received some lovely comments about my work but the most satisfying one was that "it looked like it had always been there".

Spurred on by my success, Wall to Wall was accepted for the Yorkshire and Lancashire Craft Open at the Platform Gallery which ran from 23rd July - 1st October.

Not content with this, I dusted off my embroidery skills and made a piece called "Opening Doors" for the Skipton Embroiderer's Guild exhibition "Celebrating the Victorians" 21-22nd October

This work was inspired by an item from the Rachel B Kay-Shuttleworth collection at Gawthorpe Hall. Opening Doors celebrates the work of great Victorian women reformers, Josephine Butler, Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon and Octavia Hill, who changed the status of women in society. These women had talent, energy and the courage to challenge the establishment. In an age when women of all social backgrounds had very limited life choices, their achievements improved women’s options and secured their legal right to be treated as individuals.

The work is a Victorian style neck piece made from silk organdie with machine-embroidered key motifs. It is reminiscent of a chaterlaine (a pendant with useful things such as keys, scissors, magnifying glass) which might be worn by the mistress of the household, one of the few suitable occupations for well-bred Victorian women. The keys represent the changes in society and their colours echo the “blood, sweat and tears” of women’s lives. The cord on which the keys are strung contains fragments of books, recognising the published work of these three remarkable women.

Design & photos copyright: Claire Ketteman