Cate Wood – Textile Artist and Jeweller
Cate graduated from Manchester Metropolitan University in 1992 with a BA (Hons) in Fashion and Textile Design. It was there that she developed a passion for collecting objects and a skill for creating relationships between them.
Cate’s jewellery modelled
Her final exhibition was inspired by memories and found objects that can be held in the palm of your hand or hidden in a match box; old, worn, weather beaten things found in the streets or places she had visited. Her eye for detail and space made small, over looked objects, precious. Her new collection of jewellery echoes this.
Jewellery by Cate Wood
Her natural pull towards used, aged materials and a love of a time when things were hand crafted and bespoke is evident in the assortment of vintage clothes, accessories and furniture in her home. Her small terraced house in West Yorkshire is an organised clutter of intuitively found objects, bursting at the seams with an extraordinary mish mash of, crockery, clothes, accessories and other treasures picked up in her home town and on her travels.
Jewellery by Cate Wood
Cate’s brand new collection of Jewellery continues this theme. She falls in love with obscure, interesting and charming things, findings picked up at local markets and trinkets that are part of the local heritage: hearth brushes worn by years of use, colliery tags that have been smoothed by the hundreds of hands they have passed through, vintage buttons removed from dresses and uniforms.
Jewellery by Cate Wood
Cate is curious about their past lives, the people they once belonged to and in the stories that are lost. Cate deconstructs and reconstructs these findings into unique pieces of jewellery. The bristles of a brush become tassels. A leather watch fob and a button become the fastening of a bracelet, old lost keys become jewels.
Jewellery by Cate Wood
Buttons feature heavily in her work and are symbolic for buttons are the fastenings that hold things together.
Jewellery by Cate Wood
Jewellery by Cate Wood
The use of words and messages is a recurring theme and they are used as a dark, playful reference to modern life, opinions and memories. Her colour palette is dark, Dickensian, and a nod to the surrounding streets and buildings that have been tarnished by decades of soot.
Cate’s jewellery modelled
Many of the materials that she crafts appear discoloured and marked.
Jewellery by Cate Wood
Jewellery by Cate Wood
Heart Gallery is proud to have been approached by Cate recently to be her stockist in Hebden Bridge and we look forward to introducing her work to you in 2013 and working closely with her for her Valentines Day collection for us.
Jewellery collections by Cate Wood
Jewellery collections by Cate Wood
