Tag Archives: tools

Embellished sewing tools

Posted in My work, Sewing by

I’ve recently completed a small series of works for sale with the lovely Beyond Measure shop. I don’t make a lot of things for retail so these are pretty special.

The darning cards are £36.50 and you can find them here. This scissors start at £49 and you can find them here. Beyond Measure also stock the very last of my Patchwork Colouring Books.

The darned darning cards and embellished scissors ideas both started life in this exhibition piece I made
in 2018.

I inherited my grandmother’s sewing box over 40 years after she died. I never knew
her, yet we share a thread of textile inheritance.
I spent several years pondering this box of embroidery threads, unfinished projects, tools
and bits and pieces before I worked out what I wanted to make with them. I started by
unravelling, tidying and sorting her threads and tools and then once I could see everything
clearly, I decided to make small embellished pieces. I only used threads that were already
started, short lengths and scraps and only used the tools and other things found in the
same box.

Wrapping and embellishing scissors and functional things makes them even more
precious and turns them into miniature works of art which resonate with stories and past
lives. I collect old darning cards with wonderful old graphic design and scissors which have
been used over decades and love to select threads and stitches which give new life to
things which have languished in sewing boxes for years.

I’ve made a few commissions using these techniques too, details below and worked some boxes full of these kind of sewing tool treasures (I have one or two of these left, please get in touch if you would like to see images).

photo of red silk lined box of victorian sewing tools with stitching and embellishment by Ruth Singer.

My new Find Your Focus course starts in January. It covers core values, a realistic review of your year, looking at what matters most and then working on how to build in more of the good stuff and less of the stuff that’s not taking you forwards. The course is delivered through 5 video lessons starting on 3rd January, fresh and ready for the new year.

Precious Objects

Posted in My work by

I’ve got some new work for sale on Made by Hand including embroideries of my grandad’s gardening tools as well as a saw, a spoon and a couple of lovely plastering trowels. Prices start at just £41.

Other pieces from this collection can also be purchased from my solo exhibition Textile Traces in Cwmbran, South Wales (until 20th July), and in the group Thread: Contemporary Textiles in Penrith, Cumbria (until 30th June). I also make to commission using your own treasured tools or rusty heirlooms, or can source something specially for you. Find out more about the Precious Objects collection here.

Contemporary Craft Festival preparations

Posted in career, fairs & shows by

The Contemporary Craft Festival at Bovey Tracey, Devon opens in just over a week. I have been flat out making enough stock to make my stand look convincing, as this is the first show I have done with this work. Until a couple of weeks ago I had less than 10 pieces. Now I’ve got…. some… lots…. more. I haven’t counted, but I’ve been really productive. I have also been buying more tools, hunting eBay for beautiful boxes and today, photographing new pieces. I am really, really enjoying making this new collection. It is exciting to be making things which don’t take weeks and weeks like most of my hand stitched quilts and embroideries.

I am now selling some of these pieces on MadebyHand online and they featured an interview with me on a blog post and newsletter last week which has been great promotion. I am also developing some prints based on my tool embroideries and I *hope* I will have these ready for the Craft Festival but if not these will be online in June instead.

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Melbourne & Wirksworth Festivals

Posted in Exhibitions, fairs & shows, My work by

I am taking my precious collection of objects on tour! Over two weekends in September, I will be showing and selling a growing collection of precious objects in private homes in the two Derbyshire towns of Melbourne and Wirksworth.

Wirksworth 10th & 11th September 10am-5pm at  6 Cromford Road. £7 per person for trail guide which gives entry to all venues all weekend.

Melbourne 17th & 18th September at 35 Castle St. £5 per person for a trail guide which gives entry to all venues all weekend.

 

 

Grandad’s tools

 

What’s in Your Shed? Exhibition at Snibston

Posted in Exhibitions, My work by

This week I finally got to see my work Tool Shed on exhibition at Snibston, a museum a few miles away from me. Apparently this work inspired the whole exhibition project, which is really nice to know. My work is exhibited in a purpose-built shed, inside the giant museum shed-style building. It’s great that my dad was able to come and see the work too and remember his dad, and those amazing sheds!

These pieces are based on the household and garden tools from my Grandad’s shed. He was a professional gardener from the age of 14 and carried on growing his own vegetables until his death in 2012 at the age of 96. His numerous sheds contained years of carefully-maintained and well-used tools and the essence of him. This collection uses outlines of his gardening and DIY tools stitched into his handkerchiefs, found neatly ironed and folded in the airing cupboard after his death. You can find out more here.

Tool Shed stitched artworks by Ruth Singer. Displayed in Snibston as part of What’s in Your Shed? exhibition
Tool Shed stitched artworks by Ruth Singer. Displayed in Snibston as part of What’s in Your Shed? exhibition
Tool Shed stitched artworks by Ruth Singer. Displayed in Snibston as part of What’s in Your Shed? exhibition
Tool Shed stitched artworks by Ruth Singer. Displayed in Snibston as part of What’s in Your Shed? exhibition
Tool Shed stitched artworks by Ruth Singer. Displayed in Snibston as part of What’s in Your Shed? exhibition
My dad alongside his dad’s tools. Tool Shed stitched artworks by Ruth Singer. Displayed in Snibston as part of What’s in Your Shed? exhibition

 

The show also includes two other artist sheds, rather different in character! Flights of fancy is a pigeon fancier’s fantasy shed by the wonderfully surreal team Mrs Smith who have a thing for both sheds and pigeons! The same artists created Tales of the Unfinishable which has been touring around the UK in the last year or two.

Flights of Fancy at Snibston
Flights of Fancy at Snibston
Flights of Fancy at Snibston

 

Core Shed is pretty hard to get your head round. I have read a little about it, so I was able to make some sense of it, but it has no text explanation at all, which is a huge mistake in a family-oriented, mostly science/engineering museum environment. In a fine art gallery visitors might engage with it more easily, but in this space it is adrift and pretty impenetrable. However, despite my misgivings about the appropriateness and interpretation, it is full of interesting bits and pieces which make nice photos.

 

Core Shed at Snibston
Core Shed at Snibston
Core Shed at Snibston
Core Shed at Snibston
Core Shed at Snibston
Core Shed at Snibston
Core Shed at Snibston
Core Shed at Snibston
Core Shed at Snibston
Core Shed at Snibston
Core Shed at Snibston

 

The exhibition continues until 26th September.

Travelling Tool Shed

Posted in Art Textiles, Exhibitions, My work by

Today would have been my Grandad’s 98th birthday. My work, Tool Shed, inspired by his collection of tools, is heading off for a new exhibition later this month.

What’s in Your Shed opens at Snibston, Coalville, Leicestershire 26th July – 26th September 2014 curated and conceived by Transform, an arts project working to create artistic interventions in this industrial museum.  This work inspired the whole exhibition, apparently, which is fantastic.

 

My Grandad
Quilted tool jumble
Quilted tool jumble (detail)
Tools jumble
Flower Trowel
Fork: Tool Shed series
Quilted Secateurs
Twin secateurs
Fork & Trowel

 

 

Shadow embroidery

Posted in Exhibitions by

I’ve been working on a new style of work using negative space and dense stitching.   The piece on the left, Grandad’s Tool Shed, is part of a new body of work for an exhibition at Llantarnam Grange later this year.

Garland

The piece on the right uses Jan’s garlands as the design detail, part of the collaboration I did with her earlier in the year. Both of these pieces are pretty tiny and very time-consuming, but I have plans for a larger piece one day.