Wedding veils that conceal and reveal

 

These wedding veils are part of a series that conceal hidden thoughts and reveal them only to those who can see the clues. The one in the image above is called ‘Paper trail’ and was inspired by Thomas Hardy’s novel Tess of the D’Urbevilles. It references the note that Tess wrote to Angel Clare on the evening before their marriage and slipped under his door, telling him about her past, in case that knowledge would cause him to change his mind. Unfortunately he did not find the note, but Tess was relieved because she thought he knew about her past and still wanted to marry her. It is only after they are married that she realises her mistake and, sadly, when she confesses her chequered past to him he rejects her.

The disintegrating paper in the veil represents the overlooked note and the hidden secrets it contained as well as reflecting on the fragility of her marriage. Although the veil appears to be delicate and beautiful, like Tess herself, it hides within its folds intimations of decay and the unravelling of the marriage and her life. The confusion caused by this scrap of paper initiates a paper trail that ends in Tess’s trial and sad end.

This lace veil entitled ‘Fragmented memories’ is inspired by a nineteenth century author rather than a particular novel. It is a veil for Charlotte Bronte, the author of Jane Eyre. At the age of 38 she married Arthur Nicholls, who had worked with her father as a curate. However, before that she had had an intense crush on Constantin Heger, a schoolmaster in Brussels, where she went to study for a while. When she returned to England, she wrote to him obsessively, much to his embarrassment, and the displeasure of his wife, and he had to ask her to stop writing to him. Constantin tore up all of the letters Charlotte wrote to him, but his wife collected the pieces and sewed them together so she could read them.

The veil references that time in Charlette’s life, by including torn pieces of a letter on to the lace edging of the veil. They are linked by a line of stitching to record the way they were stitched back together and to suggest that they remained part of Charlotte’s past life as fragmented memories.