Podcast

Making Meaning. A podcast by Ruth Singer exploring the meaning behind what we make.

One of the things I love most about my working life is talking to other artists and creative people about what they do and why. I love delving into the stories behind theirwork, hearing about what matters to artists and how they choose to share their thoughts through their creative practice. I am fascinated by research-focussed work and what goes on in the creative brain to develop artistic or creative work from concepts, ideas, research and thinking. The artwork I love most has a complex, often personal set of stories and narratives behind it, and often we don’t talk so much about those deeper meanings.

Since the start of the pandemic, I’ve really missed conversations with creative people about why they make what they make. I haven’t been able to visit other studios, to chat over tea about what matters most, about what inspires me, about what story we might be exploring at the moment. I love bouncing ideas off other creative minds. So I have created a podcast so I have the excuse to talk to artists and creative people whom I admire and who have fascinating stories to tell about the meaning behind their making.

Making Meaning is now available in all podcast apps, on the link below and on Apple podcasts.

Series Two

The new series launches on 31st March 2022 with a conversation with artist Helen Hallows. This series has been supported by over 50 crowdfunding supporters as well as series and single episode sponsors. Thank you so much for helping make this series possible. If you are interested in sponsoring an episode, please get in touch. If you would like to support the podcast with a donation, use the PayPal button below.

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Series Two Sponsor

I’m delighted to have the support of Studio Flax for the new series of the podcast. Studio Flax is the new name for Linladan linen embroidery threads who many of my textile friends will know. Studio Flax supplies high quality vintage and modern linen thread for embroidery and textile projects. They also have a new studio shop in Bristol. You can also find them on Instagram.

#16: Making Meaning with Claire Wellesley-Smith – Making Meaning

Wellbeing through stitch and communal creative practice runs through Claire's practice, writing and projects. She's just completed a PhD exploring this subject in depth and we both love talking about the importance of community making practice, about textile and local heritage and about the power of textiles to change lives in all kinds of subtle ways. This conversation ranges across all these areas of interest and we talk about how our work in communities is so important yet so often overlooked in the wider art world. I was honoured to be included in Claire's recent book Resilient Stitch and I’m also grateful to her for sharing her thoughts on textiles and community making for Textiles in Lockdown podcast which I made in 2020 with Gawthorpe Textiles Collection. That's coming out on this podcast very soon so you can catch up with it right here. Claire has just relaunched her incredibly popular online teaching sessions. Links to all of these are atruthsinger.com/podcast