Tag Archives: residency

Narrative Threads Artist in Residence at NCCD

Posted in Narrative Threads, Residencies by

During my residency day at NCCD in April I tried some further experiments with recording dye processes using video, this time using my iPad set up on a plate stand, which seems to work quite well. There’s more to be done on this but it looks promising and I hope a film can be included in the exhibition. I have more sampling and testing to do but it is exciting to be making progress with a conceptual idea captured on film.

The Beauty of Stains continues to develop wonderful stain patterns and shapes, which I have decided to stitch into the cloth to make them permanent.

 

 

My major making work continues to be the Criminal Quilts patchwork which will keep growing throughout the year including during the exhibition itself. I’ll soon start working into the areas of completed patchwork, adding more depth and narrative to the patchwork base.

 

Away from the studio I have been on some incredibly exciting research visits to Oxford, London and Gawthorpe Hall. The museums were all I was expecting and more, giving me masses of inspiration for my work on amulets and memorials. I haven’t yet processed everything that I took in, and am looking forward to spending more time in the studio working through some of the ideas that have been generated.

 

 

This week (Friday 29th May) my residency day includes a workshop activity for all ages, contributing to a hand-sewn textile panel. Please drop in 1-3pm to take part. I will also have open studio 11am-1pm and 3-4pm where you can see work in progress and some completely new things I am working on for the exhibition.

 

Narrative Threads Artist in Residence

Posted in Art Textiles, career, My work, Narrative Threads, Residencies by

March was a time for reflection, thinking and planning. I’m working, slowly, on new pieces. I’m revisiting older work and pulling ideas together. Ideas for new work are sloshing around and beginning to settle. A few days holiday at the end of the month gave me vital thinking time, sitting on the front of a canal boat, pondering. Walking. Looking at the water. Watching the stars come out. All of these are essential parts of my creative process and it is often hard to achieve this kind of peace and contemplative time when my walk to the studio is through the city centre (where there is little green space) and my life is overcrowded with house renovation works and exhibition installation. None of these things is bad at all, but it all takes away from the creative space which is needed to think and make.

canal

 

This month I have taken The Beauty of Stains out of the NCCD cafe to review the marks it has built up since February and contemplate what more to do on it. I’ve catalogued all the stains, and given it a gentle, cold water wash to remove actual solids while preserving the stains left behind. The piece is building up a fine patina of use, which I am delighted with.

 

Whether to embroidery the stains or to leave them is troubling me today. I can’t decide.

 

Ruth Singer: The Beauty of Stains
Ruth Singer: The Beauty of Stains
Ruth Singer: The Beauty of Stains
Ruth Singer: The Beauty of Stains
Ruth Singer: The Beauty of Stains
Ruth Singer: The Beauty of Stains
Ruth Singer: The Beauty of Stains
Ruth Singer: The Beauty of Stains
Ruth Singer: The Beauty of Stains
Ruth Singer: The Beauty of Stains

Meanwhile, Many Hands isn’t yet showing much in the way of marks of use and remains not very changed from when it went up. I don’t know if this is people being very gentle when touching it or if it is more sturdy than I thought. A few more months will tell.

My funded research visits start this month, with trips to Nottingham, Oxford and London next week and Gawthorpe Hall at the end of the month, with many more planned for later in the summer.

Community workshops in Sleaford were part of my original plan for the residency but have proved harder than expected to arrange owing to the limited contacts I have in the town, compared to Leicester, where I have all the right networks already established. This in itself is a learning process for me and goes to show just how important it is to have roots in a place.

 

March’s workshop at NCCD was inspired by my pincushions, with samples made by work experience students Amelia and Neena and wonderful, colourful pieces also created by workshop participants, some as young as 3!

 

Workshop
Ruth Singer Pinpebbles
Student samples

My next residency day is 29th April, followed by 29th May which will include another free drop-in workshop.

Maker In Residence

Posted in Residencies by

The new project is announced!

I’m maker in residence at Bilston Craft Gallery from 3rd January until the end of March 2007. I’ve started a new blog all about it here, so I wont say too much about it now. I’m really excited about it – new projects, new people and time to do my own work. I’ve decided that I’m going to use the time to create some large pieces of complex work – the sort of thing I never normally have time for, but that bubble around in my creative brain when I ought to be sleeping or doing my accounts. I’m having fun coming up with ideas for workshops and classes and joint projects with other people.

I’ve got lots of other things ticking over at the moment, not least a trade show in January to prepare for. Oh and Christmas. I keep forgetting about that. I still haven’t made my cards (am I so late now that I can just not bother??). I designed a load of decorations, but they haven’t even made it onto paper, let alone fabricated and onto trees. But I have planned the food. I always think about food, it is my only real hobby these days, though knitting comes a close second. I bought a beret pattern to knit today, when I explored a great craft shop just round the corner! I only found out because someone in my new knitting group told me. I bought a fat quarter of batik fabric for a quilter friend and some yarn and a pattern to knit a beret for me. I was about to start a summer cardigan, but got distracted by wanting a new hat.
Right, really must start those Christmas cards….