Bound Part 1

Bound part 1 - vintage kitchen utensils wrapped in vintage cream cloured thread and red sylko thread

Bound Part 1, is a new piece of work featuring pieces from my collection of vintage kitchen utensils.

For generations women have been bound to the home and a life of domesticity. This piece is a celebration of the tools of their trade.

Beautiful Skyline products manufactured in the Lancashire town of Burnley, well-worn wooden spoons and unusual utensils.

Each piece tells a story through the imperfections, scars and dents it has collected through use. Artwork is mounted onto a cotton tea-towel woven in Quarry Bank Mill .

Size 31 x 38 cm. Vintage kitchen utensils, hand bound with vintage crochet and Sylko threads.

Bound part 1 - vintage kitchen utensils wrapped in vintage cream cloured thread and red sylko thread
Bound Part 1
Bound part 1 - vintage kitchen utensils wrapped in vintage cream cloured thread and red sylko thread
Bound in vintage threads with a hint of my favourite Vintage red Sylko thread

This piece forms part of a body of work about my Lancashire roots.

Contact Magazine July 2021

In Contact Magazine July 2021 you’ll discover an article sharing the story behind the name ‘Arnold’s Attic’. This digital magazine is the latest publication by the UK Embroiderers’ Guild. If fancy a quick peek, I’ve added a snippet below for you to read.

A copy of the Contact Magazine article
Snapshot of the Contact Magazine article

“Catherine’s use of the name ‘Arnolds Attic’ came about after a chance opportunity to acquire a large collection of vintage haberdashery, cloth and ephemera from a friend of her aunt who was clearing out his house.  The family had worked in the Lancashire textile mills for generations and as his mother had been an avid collector of fabrics her entire life, the collection was varied and substantial.  To honour the memory of this kind gift which moved Catherine from being a keen hobbyist to a passionate explorer and experimenter, she called it after the man and where the collection had been stored – Arnold’s Attic. “

The collection has inspired and appears in many of the works produced over the years and continues to provide a rich kaleidoscope of ideas, source materials and challenges when coupled with Catherine’s memories and heritage of growing up in Lancashire. Catherine began to focus on pieces with this common thread and exhibitions to showcase these to educate and inform about the many aspects of this important era and her childhood growing up in the now declining industries. In more recent years, Catherine has sought to perfect a style of ‘handwriting’ stitching in her signature red thread (a lot sourced from the collection) and use this to narrate stories to conjure images and emotions and fire the imagination.

Contact /magazine July 2021

The Guild contacted me earlier this year asking me to take part in the series ‘A-Z of Artists’. It’s an honour to share my work alongside some amazing textile artists. The artworks appearing in the article are Matchbox Challenge and Time for Tea, which I created under the name of Catherine Hill Textile Artist.

Water Works Exhibition

I’m pleased to announce that “Moors of Home ” has been selected by Sarah, curator at Spring Up Gallery, for the Water Works Exhibition. This virtual exhibition will be available to view from 15th August to 12th September 2021 via this link.

To read more about this artwork, please visit this post.

Exhibition Poster showing a background of rippling blue water
Exhibition Poster
Moors of Home - red hand embroidered words of a lancashire poem onto cotton cloth
Moors of Home

Size 21 x 27 cm. The piece is hand embroidered and hand stitched with vintage Sylko thread on cotton cloth Eco printed with leaves and petals from my lockdown garden in Summer 2020.

Screen shot of the  Gallery
Screen shot of the Virtual Gallery
Screen shot of the Water Works Exhibition Gallery
Screen shot of the Water Works Exhibition Gallery

This is the third time I have exhibited art with the Spring Up Gallery.