Lucy May

The Tears of Saint Clare is a hand embroidered sculpture that pays homage to Catholic devotional figures, Mater Dolorosa imagery and forgotten sacred objects. Saint Clare, patron of embroiderers and eyesight, is reimagined as both mourner and protector. Her presence honours generations of women whose textile artistry has remained unvalued and unseen. She invites viewers and pilgrims alike to consider what we choose to preserve and venerate and what we allow to be overlooked.

Her luminous face, painted then intricately stitched in the traditional ecclesiastical technique of Or Nué, renders sorrow tangible, tactile and beautiful. Crystal tears trail her cheeks and a radiant stumpwork halo of goldwork eyes and stars reflects both Clare’s vision and the physical toll of embroidery. Along the hem of her veil Lucy has net-darned a Latin prayer of her own invention, a quiet invocation for the protection and recognition of needleworkers past and present

Worked in traditional techniques combined with vintage haberdashery and repurposed objects, the piece draws on collective memory, archives and vernacular iconography. In doing so, The Tears of Saint Clare becomes a contemporary reliquary for invisible textile histories, celebrating embroidery as an act of devotion and protest, beauty and endurance, remembrance and resistance.