Fran Jordan (1960-2008), was born in Cheshire, but moved to Ilkley in the 1980s, where she became a successful multi-media artist and business-woman with a particular talent for textile and jewellery design.
She graduated in 1981 with a degree in English and Art from Exeter University before training as a teacher at the University of Leeds. After graduation, she taught art at Bradford Girls’ Grammar School and later St Bede’s in Bradford.
She left teaching in 1990 to become a freelance book and card illustrator, although later designed, made and sold scarves, brooches and beads from ‘Cakewalk’, a shop she ran with her business partners, Emma Straw and Helen Cotterill, in the Railway Road Arcade, Ilkley.
Her husband, Stephen, said of Fran after her sudden death from a brain haemorrhage.:
She took her inspiration from nature, from the patterns and colours that she witnessed. She would see patterns in the clouds and in stones and rocks. She liked her work to be unique and different — one-offs — and I think that’s why the shop was so successful.
She was also a tutor at art classes in the Ilkley, Addingham and Burley-in-Wharfedale areas, where she was well-regarded as an inspirational teacher. One of her students said after her death:
Fran’s enthusiasm inspired us all. It didn’t matter how good or bad we were. She used her talent in a very practical way. She would pick up the brush or pencil and show you what she meant, magically bringing your ideas to life. We all thrived on her approach and miss her greatly.
In 2009 an exhibition celebrating the life of Fran Jordan was staged at the Otley Courthouse Gallery by her former students.