Making Meaning

I'm talking today to ceramic artist Jennie McCall. I've known Jennie for quite a few years and have had the pleasure of seeing her work grow and develop as she finds her place, and supporting her through mentoring and one of my courses. We discuss reinvention, finding your place, understanding ourselves and putting emotions into our creative work. Jennie talks about finding the freedom to be herself and to work with authenticity and curiosity.

Please note: Jennie talks about childhood trauma in the first few minutes of the podcast, so do skip past this if you need to

Find out more here: https://ruthsinger.com/2023/10/08/making-meaning-podcast-episode-30-with-jennie-mccall

Support the podcast with a donation or subscription: http://ruthsinger.com/podcast-fundraiser

Find more episodes at: http://ruthsinger.com/podcast

Get a copy of Making Meaning Journal: http://ruthsinger.com/journal

Find Your Focus course (and other things): https://ruthsinger.podia.com/

Join my creative community, Maker Membership: http://ruthsinger.com/membership

Keep in touch by joining my email list: http://ruthsinger.com/email

For the first time, Making Meaning has been recorded outdoors! I met up with Kate Unwin of The Moon and the Furrow at her woodland in Wales. Kate is an artist, maker, grower and one of my closest friends. She moved to Wales to live a more sustainable and nature-connected life and she runs a small business that is very much aligned with her values and creative inspirations. We talk about nature, creativity and healing, about making conscious choices with a business, about living simply and about sharing wonderful things with other people.

Find out more here https://ruthsinger.com/2023/09/19/making-meaning-podcast-episode-29-with-kate-unwin

Support the podcast with a donation or subscription: http://ruthsinger.com/podcast-fundraiser

Find more episodes at: http://ruthsinger.com/podcast

Get a copy of Making Meaning Journal: http://ruthsinger.com/journal

Join my creative community, Maker Membership: http://ruthsinger.com/membership

Keep in touch by joining my email list: http://ruthsinger.com/email

In this episode, Ruth talks to textile artist and researcher, Lucie Bea Dutton. For the last few years, Lucie has been exploring Hilary Mantel's Cromwell Trilogy though a large-scale sewing project inspired by Mantel's work. Lucie trained as a historian and she works extensively with archival materials. In this episode, Ruth talks to Lucie about this project, as well as finding your place as an artist when it isn't your first career, the importance of a studio, how shifts in life influence how you want to work, creative process and how you don't need to be economically productive to be an artist. Find out more and see images of Lucie's work: https://ruthsinger.com/podcast/ Also find details of Ruth's podcast fundraiser here: https://ruthsinger.com/podcastfundraiser/

Hello friends, Making Meaning podcast is back! Or it's almost back, if I can fundraise enough to keep it going. In this episode I'll explain where I've been and what is coming up if we can make it happen, together. You can support a new series by donating at ruthsinger.com/podcastfundraiser You can also join my email list for updates at ruthsinger.com/email Previous episodes information and images can be found at ruthsinger.com/podcast

In this final conversation of the series, I am talking to Gillian Lee Smith, a Scottish painter based in Northumberland. Gillian and I first met as members of a designer-makers group in the English midlands but we reconnected over Zoom during the pandemic and have had some wonderful conversations about our practices, our mentoring work and our creative ideas. In this conversation we focus on mentoring and talk about how both supporting others and being supported ourselves helps our practice. We talk about the zigzag journey of creative practice and how reflection and talking things through with others really helps to clarify things, to open new doors and to inspire. Find out more at ruthsinger.com/podcast

Mandeep is a printmaker and workshop leader who works under the brand The Laughing Cactus Print Studio. She's also local to me and we've been working together a lot over the last year or so on community projects and sharing thoughts on our respective creative practices. In this conversation we talk about the themes Mandeep is currently exploring around stillness and displacement, about belonging and moving between two countries. We talk about community practice and the impact it has on our work and the benefits of the collaborative work we are currently involved in. Find out more and see images of Mandeep's work at ruthsinger.com/podcast

Making Meaning Live was a fantastic online event in July 2022 created by Ruth Singer. The event brought together creative people to talk about the meaning behind what they make with a live audience. Making Meaning Live was a fantastic online event which I created and hosted in July 2022. The event brought together creative people to talk about the meaning behind what they make with a live audience. This episode includes Ruth Singer in conversation with Maker Membership participants talking about their research and reflection process. The second part is a discussion between Ruth Singer and researcher Charlotte Bilby about working with women in the criminal justice system. Find out more at ruthsinger.com/podcast

Making Meaning Live was a fantastic online event in July 2022 created by Ruth Singer. The event brought together creative people to talk about the meaning behind what they make with a live audience. The next three episodes of the podcast are highlights of the programme - the bits that work without images and video. This episode includes Amy Twigger Holroyd talking about Fashion Fictions with participants Wendy Ward, Ruhee Das Chowdhury and Kate Harper, a conversation between textile artists Claire Wellesley-Smith & Lokesh Ghai and artist-maker Charlie Birtles talking about thinking practice. Find out more at ruthsinger.com/podcast

Making Meaning Live was a fantastic online event which Ruth Singer created and hosted in July 2022. The event brought together creative people to talk about the meaning behind what they make with a live audience. This episode includes Michaela McMillan, Wendy Ward and Kathryn Parsons and all involve interaction and activities which the participants really got into. You can take part in Wendy's activity and send your writing to her. Find out more at ruthsinger.com/podcast

Michaela McMillan's wonderful work often defies categorisation. It is craft or is it assemblage? Is it sculpture or is it textiles? It is meant to be serious or is it meant to be fun? Michaela's work is full of elements of her personality and her passions. She describes it perfectly as playfully serious. In this podcast we reflect on how much of ourselves we reveal through our making practice, what rules and boundaries we use or choose to break to make our respective takes on non-functional craft objects! We also talk about writing as part of a creative practice and about using titles and words to add to the narrative of what we make. Find out more and see images of Michaela's work at ruthsinger.com/podcast