Reason for Being: Aimee Betts

We recently moved to Berkshire after ten years of living in London - my husband was offered a job here and we moved quite suddenly. It’s a completely new area for the both of us, our nearest family live two hours away. I should feel isolated but for some reason I'm not. Our house could be anywhere in the world right now and we’d still be living the same experience.

One of the things that under-pins my identity is my home studio. A medium size room behind the kitchen that is separate from the rest of the house. I feel lucky that we found this house, with a room like this at such short notice. This room is my anchor, along with everything inside it. It’s the space where I escape to when the baby is asleep, and without it I think I’d be feeling pretty lost right now.

After the move we unpacked the essential items and then everything else went up to the loft. I’m slightly embarrassed by the amount of stuff we have and at times it’s overwhelming. I find myself slowly sifting through each box and trying to make sense of it all. I’ve found a few treasures along the way. Vintage ribbons bought at an antiques fair ten years ago, a paperweight gifted to me by ex-students and a knife calved out of balsa wood by my husband. There are moments when I open a box and pause at the beauty of something. And other times where I despair at the irrelevance of an object, usually old cables belonging to some obsolete technology.

I’m compelled to make things for our new home from the materials we have, and a few gifts to welcome guests when they are finally allowed to visit. I rarely have time to make things for family or myself, as commissions take priority when you are time poor. It feels a luxury to be able to do this.

I’ve been enjoying the relaxed pace of embroidering in my home. There is comfort in the slowness of the stitch that seems to mirror this moment in time.

Aimee Betts, Embroidery and textile artist
Reason for Being