Different aspects of women’s lives explored by two different arts forms.

An exhibition by eight contemporary artists and designer makers has just opened which explores the influence of domestic heritage.

Called ‘On My Mother’s Knee ‘ it is being curated on the premise that techniques they learned at their mother’s knee gives these makers both a unique identity and a shared past.

The organisers said: “Their pieces speak of women’s work and domestic heritage as well as friendship, love and joy.”

Louise Frances Evans created felt shoes with a picture of her grandmother as a child inserted in them. Her grandmother, Evans said, was instrumental in giving her a love of textiles.

Another of the exhibitors, textile artist Ruth Singer, said she had created a new series for the show, called Tool Shed, which is not ‘traditionally domestic – at least not traditionally feminine’.

It was inspired by memories of her grandfather, a professional gardener, and his collection of gardening tools, and she uses his well-worn handkerchiefs as the main cloth.

“I had an idea to use the family hoard of well-used domestic linens in some way and this exhibition fitted in perfectly,” she explained.

She said she learned a love of sewing at her stepmother’s elbow, when she was a teenager, rather than at her mother’s knee.

Caren Garfen has explored the memories of twin girls to see if they share the same memory bank.

She interviewed the twins separately and then, using two dresses made for small girls, stitched each twin’s writing on to each one of them.

Garfen said: “The twins had no hint of what each other was writing. The hand stitched sentence saying: “I don’t remember sitting on my mother’s knee” gives an intimation of the troubled relationship between the young girls and their mother.”

To have a look at the online catalogue, which gives more details about the artists and their inspiration for the exhibition, click here.

On My Mother’s Knee, which opened at the weekend at Llantarnam Grange, Cwmbran, in south east Wales, runs until 11 January.

Meanwhile the focus of The Welsh National Opera (WNO) for the spring season of 2014, due to tour the UK, is on fallen women.

The programme is entitled ‘Women Behaving Badly’, and the three operas in the season follow the stories of three women whose different paths in life lead them astray.

The operas are Puccini’s Manon Lescaut, which tells of a woman who wanted it all and follows her rapid descent to self destruction; Hans Werner Henze’s ‘Boulevard Solitude‘, an update of Manon Lescaut set in European society after the war; and Verdi’s La Traviata, an attack on hypocrisy that also celebrates compassion, love and self sacrifice.

Director David Pountney said he was well aware of the hypocrisy at the centre of these three operas.

“The hypocrisy lies in permitting the audience the titillation of watching a woman behaving badly for three acts on the condition that she points up the moral by dying miserably in the fourth.

“The males in the audience in 19th century Paris were not above visiting such women themselves, but they still demanded that their wives and daughters were presented with an elevating moral lesson.”

The Fallen Women season will be performed in venues around the UK from February to April including Cardiff, Birmingham, Milton Keynes, Southampton, Plymouth, Llandudno, and Bristol.

WNO is also working with award-winning composer Errollyn Wallen to create ‘Anon’, a brand new opera for young adults based on the theme of Fallen Women, looking at the exploitation of women today in different cultures.

Wallen, who composed the theme for the opening ceremony of the London Paralympics, is working closely with 16-18 year-olds in school and university groups in and around Birmingham, gathering stories and inspiration for the production.

Anon will tour small-scale venues in Wales and England alongside the main season tour.