Fragmented memories

Another lace veil inspired by a nineteenth century author; this time Charlotte Bronte. Again I've used embellished machine lace for this one. Charlotte married her father’s curate late in life, but before that had an intense crush on Constantin Heger, a schoolmaster in Brussels, where she went to study for a while. She wrote to him obsessively when she returned to England, much to his embarrassment, and the displeasure of his wife, and he eventually asked her to stop writing to him. Interestingly, although he tore up Charlotte’s letters, his wife retrieved them, sewed the pieces together and kept them. This veil references that episode and those letters by incorporating torn sections of a letter on to the lace of the wedding veil and joining them in a line of stitching that suggests the life line or story line of the writer. You can see why I’ve called this one ‘Fragmented memories’.

Paper trail veil

The inspiration for this lace veil came from another nineteenth century novel - Tess of the D’Urbevilles by Thomas Hardy. In this pieces I’m referencing the episode in the story where Tess writes a note to Angel Clare before she marries him telling him about her past, in case he wants to change his mind. It is only after they are married that she realises he did not find the note, and once she tells him about her past he rejects her. In the veil, the disintegrating paper represents the hidden note as well as the hidden secrets and shows how vulnerable and fragile marriage can be. Although the veil is beautiful, it hides within it the essence of decay and vulnerability, and of course veils themselves serve to mask and hide the emotions. I’ve called it ‘Paper trail’ as the confusion over that little slip of paper leads to the path that the rest of the story follows, ultimately ending with Tess’s trial.