Vessel of Self (2025)
A circular drawstring vessel exploring identity, memory and inner knowing.
The outer surface is constructed from a patchwork of fabrics collected over a lifetime, slow stitched together and marked with words that name the roles and identities that shape how I am seen in the world, artist, mother, feminist. These stitched words speak to the visible self: layered, expected, and carried. Inside, an old tablecloth dyed with avocado stone holds a more private language. Embroidered in my signature red thread is a figure curled into herself on a pillow, surrounded by a stitched poem:
I meet myself here, bare foot, listening, unravelling, slowly becoming,the flawed body carries untold stories, silent wisdom and the sacred ache of becoming whole without apology. I stitch myself together with shaking hands, threading truth through every wound.
At the centre, a small seashell marks the heart space, a quiet object gathered on a recent journey. It holds stillness, reflection and the inner knowing carried by women, and by myself.
#SayHerName
Jacket embroidered with the names of the 123 women murdered by men in the UK between January and November 2021.
In March 2021 the murder of Sarah Everard sent shockwaves across the nation, resulting in candle lit vigils, nationwide marches and calls for an end of violence against women and girls once and for all. Yet just months later Sabina Nessa’s murder barely made the headlines.
This embroidered jacket was a response to the absence of empathy and recognition provided to the women murdered that in some way didn’t fit the narrative of what is deemed newsworthy. The hand-crafted list of names which extends down the back, across the front, and down one arm brings focus to the seemingly endless stream of female victims.
The slow and gentle act of hand crafting this jacket and its lasting materiality resist the fleeting nature of modern media outrage, a space for each and every woman killed to be honoured and recognised irrespective of background, colour, race or religious beliefs. Each name is hand stitched in chain stitch, each link connecting one woman to the next. This chain represents the connection all women have to each other through the lived experience of womanhood. The jacket took well in excess of 123 hours to craft and was worn to the Reclaim The Night march in November 21. It is now on display in Derby Museum & Art Gallery as part of their Derbyshire Women History Makers Exhibition, which runs until February 2023.
#SheSaidIt
A series of textile works celebrating the voices of women.
So often the voices of women are ignored, or not attributed to them, this ongoing project of stitched works celebrates these women and their wisdom.
