I would classify myself as a Jack-of-all-trades (and master of none), always finding a new craft to learn, and of course the essential shiny new equipment and exciting materials to add to my stash of ‘stuff’.
Over the years I’ve done workshops in sculpture, painting and life drawing, ceramics, stained glass, shibori, kantha, jewellery making, basket making and most recently textiles.
In my thirties, after a foundation course at Chelsea – where my tutor told me that I was a designer not an artist – I went on to complete a BA in three-dimensional design at Middlesex University. The subject matter was very interesting but unfortunately the course was not, so, disillusioned, I went back to my career in public relations and carried on attending workshops in my spare time.
A weekend taster course with well known basket-maker Mary Butcher got me hooked and I spent the next four years studying for City and Guilds Parts 1 and 2 in basket making. More recently I completed an inspirational two-year Advanced Textiles course at City Lit, where this exhibiting group textiles2020 was formed.
Currently I’m interested in the potential crossover between the two disciplines, basketry and textiles, especially creating 3D forms in fabric.
Basket making is a fascinating craft using a huge range of materials, from those worked after being soaked: willow weaving, rush, bark and cane, to dry or ‘stringy stuff’ – natural fibres, grasses and palm, wire, string, paper, and recycled materials.
Fragility: the container versus the content
Many basketry techniques involve warps and wefts, plus plaiting, roping, while other methods, like coiling, use stitch; then there is knotting, looping and netting. You can see the potential!
Trying to understand my way of working and what inspires me has been a challenge, but here goes: mine is a response to materials and the process or technique; lots of experimentation and playing until something interesting emerges that captures my imagination. Thinking is not really part of the process, but research in museums and archives is. Some of my earlier baskets were inspired by research into traditional eel traps used in rivers in the UK, and others by looking at the collection of African beer sieves in the Pitt Rivers Museum.
Texture, especially hairy, tufted, or with loose ends is a recurring theme, possibly connected to my collection of brushes, which combine beautiful with useful.
Baskets and vessels appeal to me because their structure provides parameters to work with, even if they are not functional forms: a top and bottom, inside and outside, self-supporting, a recognisable ‘thing’.
You can see more of my recent work on this website in the Exhibitions sections, or follow me on Instagram @hollingworth.kathryn
Out of Africa 15 cm, linen and mixed threads, a contribution to ‘Stitch Your Story’ installation by Mr X Stitch in Blackburn Cathedral, part of the British Textile Biennial, 2021
Exhibitions
Worn, textiles2020, Espacio Gallery, London, October 2023
Fishy Tales (a collaborative project), Festival of Quilts, NEC Birmingham, August 2023
Collateral (see 2022) also exhibited in Cotton: labour, land and body, Crafts Council Gallery, 2022-23
Stories in Stich, textiles2020. Espacio Gallery, London, April 2022
British Textile Biennial 2021, stitch your story installation, Blackburn Cathedral, October 2021
Collateral, British Textiles Biennial 2021 (contribution to Brigid McLeer’s installation) Queen Street Mill, Lancashire, 2021
The Festival of Quilts, NEC Birmingham, 29 July-1 August 2021
textiles2020: the show, Espacio Gallery, London, December 2020
In Transition, Group Show, City Lit, Feb-March 2020
Construction Sites, Group Show, City Lit, July 2019
FLOW exhibition, River & Rowing Museum, Henley on Thames, July 2014
Open Studio, Palmers Green and Southgate Art Trail, June 2014
Basketry Nation Group Show, Kingsgate Studios, July 2012
‘Inspired By’ (finalist in annual art competition), Victoria & Albert Museum, London, October 2011
Basketry Arts: Useful & Beautiful, The Apricot Gallery, September 2011
Over, Under and Out, City Lit Part 2 final show, July 2011
Basketry, Hastings Gallery, 2010
Unwrapped, City Lit Part 1 final show, July 2009
Member: North London Stitch and Textiles
Member: Basket Makers’ Association
Member: London Basketry Group
Follow me on Instagram: @hollingsworth.kathryn