Textile artist Helen Riddle's latest work inspired by a 200 year old wall goes on display

“On my lockdown walks I kept seeing glimpses of this wall and I was taken with how interesting the erosion of the stone looked, so I did a few sketches,” says Riddle. “Then an opportunity came up to create an exhibition and at around the same time I came across the Friends of Waterton’s Wall group who are working to preserve part of the wall and promote its upkeep and history. I realised it was the same wall I had been walking along, so it all just came together.”

Riddle who works primarily in textiles and stitch using a combination of felt making, embroidery, hand stitch, illustration and printmaking, has created a number of artworks in response to the wall exploring the themes of erosion, ageing and decay. “I walked around the wall several times and looked at what was causing the decay – trees pushing against it and ivy impregnating it. The major cause of decay is moisture and what is known as ‘the freeze-thaw cycle’. With each piece I looked at a different section of the wall; I was drawn in by the contour lines, subtle colours and intricate shapes and forms which emerge over time.”

Working from her sketches, and from some additional photographs, Riddle then began to experiment with different forms and materials to create the artworks, trying out combining mortar and textiles to represent what she had observed in her close study of the wall. “What really fires me up about creating more complex work is that I often have the idea for a piece quite early on, as with this project, but I don’t have a clear idea of how I am going to create it,” she says. “The excitement for me, comes in the problem solving – what materials I might use and how they will come together to create the effect I seek. So, there’s a period of experimentation and play. I often reject ideas and techniques along the way but it’s never wasted – they might surface again in another piece.”

Before becoming an artist, Riddle was a teacher of languages. It was a career she enjoyed but in 2008 she decided to concentrate on her creative practice. “I loved teaching – it wasn’t that I got fed up with it – but I wanted to give this other part of me a chance and see if I could do it,” she says. “I grew up in a family who were always making something. As a child I liked drawing and I loved felt – I didn’t have the patience to sew – and used to make models and pictures.” She continued drawing in adulthood and would be commissioned to make artwork as gifts. “When that started to grow, it prompted me to give up teaching and I set up my own craft business selling my artwork at events, fairs and galleries.”

It was a successful venture and then in 2018, she made another decision – she took a studio at the Art House in Wakefield and began focussing on making bodies of work and larger-scale pieces for exhibition. In 2019 her first major solo exhibition The Doffer and the Fancy: Re-imagining the Machine, a show of textile sculpture, went on display at Leeds Industrial Museum inspired by and exhibited alongside mill machinery in the museum collection.

To create the body of work for A Stitch in Time Riddle applied for and was awarded a Culture Grant from Wakefield Council. “The great thing about their grants is that they are open to all,” she says. “As an older emerging artist without a formal arts training, many opportunities are out of reach for me as they are aimed at younger recent graduates so it’s been really empowering to find an organisation reaching out to anybody considering a creative project in the district.”

For the exhibition, she made nine large-scale pieces and 22 smaller ones which took her around six months to produce. “Combining construction materials with textiles meant learning new skills and spending time letting my hands get used to how new materials behave,” she says. “I think the excitement I found in this aspect came across in the artworks as a lot of the feedback from visitors to the exhibition has been about how much they were inspired by the combination of materials and techniques. It is definitely something I want to continue to explore so I’ve signed up for a course in heritage construction techniques.”

Riddle says that the whole project has been an inspiring experience for her. “I have learnt a great deal, it has made my walks around this area so much richer and I’ve become very fond of the wall,” she says. “I hope that the exhibition has helped to raise awareness of Waterton’s Wall and the work that the Friends Group are doing.”

At Anglers Country Park Visitors’ Centre until April 11, transfers to Create Cafe at Wakefield One from mid-April. For information about Helen Riddle’s artwork visit helenriddle.co.uk For details about The Friends of Waterton’s Wall visit friendsofwatertonswall.com