Tag: heritage
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Red clay and faded madder
Following the day’s colour prompt, I looked for a summer orange but what I found was an autumn russet, terracotta, brick. Had it been a sunny day, I might have thought of Tuscan roof tiles, glowing at sunset, but on an overcast, post-heatwave day when everything seems faded, it’s brick I see. Good, solid English…
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Material Histories, Showing and Sharing Textiles: Making Meaning Episode 66
This episode is the second of the occasional mini series Material Histories with Deb McGuire. In this one we have a wonderful wide-ranging conversation starting with what we look for in quilt shows but covers far more than that. We talk about the power of connecting through making, about showing and sharing textile works and…
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21 Years of Ruth Singer, artist and writer. Making Meaning Episode 65
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This month, July 2026 marks 21 years since I left a very nice, well-paid job in the museum sector (at the V&A no less) and set off on this journey of second-career self-employment. It’s been varied to say the least and full of successes and failures, risks and rewards. In this new podcast episode I…
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Where Do I Get My Ideas From? Making Meaning Episode 64
I have been asked about my ideas and where they come from more than anything else in my 21 year career (although “How long did it take to make?” must be a close second). It’s really hard for me to define where each idea came from but I’ve given it a go in this podcast.…
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Introducing Material Histories with Deb McGuire. Making Meaning Episode 63
Material Histories is a new mini-series of Making Meaning Podcast with special guest co-host Deb McGuire. Deb is a brilliant historian, specialising in emotional histories of quilting, but she’s incredibly knowledgable about all kinds of things. We have so many overlapping interests and things we really want to talk about in the world of textile…
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Cherry Blossom and the power of co-creation
Last weekend I went to see Sara Cook’s Cherry Blossom Project in the Garden Museum, London and it was amazing! I don’t often get to take part in other artists’ projects so it was a real treat for me to be on the other side for a change. At the launch Sara talked about the…
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How to recognise a Mary Linwood embroidery
Attributions and confusions, Mary Linwood’s Lost Legacy During my research into Mary Linwood, I came across plenty of embroideries that had been attributed to her in the past. There are also some in museums that I am not convinced are actually by Mary Linwood and some that have been auctioned in recent years that look…
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Museum Visits
Close-up with Mary Linwood in museum collections Visiting museum stores to see historic textiles close up is my idea of textile heaven. During the development of Mary Linwood; Art, Stitch & Life exhibition, I got to visit Leicester Museum stores a few times, the Bowes Museum and the V&A Storehouse. I also saw a couple…
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Embroidered Herstories: Rediscovering Mary Linwood
A new online course packed with information about the life and legacy of the great Mary Linwood. I’ve created this to share some of the masses of research I did for the exhibition, Mary Linwood: Art, Stitch & Life. There’s a free introduction talk coming up and the full course
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Final Week of Mary Linwood Exhibition
Plus Meet the Artist this weekend! and free postage for exhibition catalogues this week too I’m so sad that the exhibition is finally coming to an end – it’s been a wonderful few months seeing Mary Linwood’s work alongside my own. The exhibition closes on Sunday 22nd February. It’s open every day weekdays 11-4.30 and…