Hanny Newton had always loved making things with her hands. In her teens, this mainly took the form of baking, but later on, she found her true calling in embroidery. “One day, I showed my stitching to my friend Kathleen who had studied art in London,” recalled Newton in an interview with Textile Artist, “and she pointed out that I could actually study embroidery and that it didn’t just have to be a hobby.”
It wasn’t long before she mastered her craft, graduating from the Royal School of Needlework with an FDA in Hand Embroidery, and then from Falmouth University with a BA in Contemporary Crafts.
Nowadays, her main technique is goldwork embroidery. “I am fascinated by the way metal threads play with light and the beautiful qualities different types of metal can bring to a piece of work,” she says. “I really like the fact that metal brings an unexpected hardness to textiles, which is usually seen as quite a soft medium.”
With a love of stitch, Newton takes inspiration from the rich heritage of embroidery, while finding her own personal voice through it. She also passes her love on, by teaching embroidery and showing people from all walks of life just how awesome stitching can be.
“Goldwork is an area of embroidery which is sometimes perceived to be somewhat traditional and has many rules,” she says. “To me, a rule of how something must be worked was at some point a new invention itself, and that excites me and keeps me inspired to explore what metal threads can do, without worrying if I am doing it ‘right’.”
Here are some of her embroidery works:
