Jun 13, 2026 · 48 min · 13 segments
Making 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…
Deb McGuireHost
Ruth SingerHost
Um, which was a research into what people were making, textile practice was happening during lockdown, which I did for Gawthorpe Textiles Collection.
And We've kept in touch ever since and had kind of interest, r- always have really interesting conversations.
So The Victorian Hand is a lovely project which is based out of London College of Fashion and, um, Lancaster University.
And it's, um, essentially a historical project, but it's a really interesting project in the sense that it is bringing history, um, into the kind of modern day by engaging with, um, um, makers, people who are interested in the idea of making and the importance of making in the past.
It's looking at the hand and looking at the way that, through time, we have made things, and how making those things has made us.
So how do we define ourselves? How do we feel about, um, our identity? How do we feel about, and how do we value the kinds of things that our hands made? But also the way that we can make judgments about people, um, and ourselves about what we can make and about what we do.
But Ruth and I have been working together on some really lovely, um, workshops which, um, involve the public.
Uh, they also involve surgeons at Royal College of, um, Surgeons, and also at the Quilters' Guild, where we've been asking, bringing together different people who work with their hands in different ways-
... and asking them really to reflect on what that work with their hands has meant in their life, but also how it affects how they feel about themselves.
There's so much that we could explore, and the kinds of themes coming up, you know, how we think about how we age, how we think about how we learn skills, how we evolve skills.
Um, sometimes about how those skills improve with age, and then also how age takes some of those skills away from us.
So like when we're thinking about talking about surgeons versus people who have maybe taken up sewing later in life, you know, two completely different experiences of those kinds of things.
Um, which was a research into what people were making, textile practice was happening during lockdown, which I did for Gawthorpe Textiles Collection.
And We've kept in touch ever since and had kind of interest, r- always have really interesting conversations.
So The Victorian Hand is a lovely project which is based out of London College of Fashion and, um, Lancaster University.
And it's, um, essentially a historical project, but it's a really interesting project in the sense that it is bringing history, um, into the kind of modern day by engaging with, um, um, makers, people who are interested in the idea of making and the importance of making in the past.
It's looking at the hand and looking at the way that, through time, we have made things, and how making those things has made us.
So how do we define ourselves? How do we feel about, um, our identity? How do we feel about, and how do we value the kinds of things that our hands made? But also the way that we can make judgments about people, um, and ourselves about what we can make and about what we do.
But Ruth and I have been working together on some really lovely, um, workshops which, um, involve the public.
Uh, they also involve surgeons at Royal College of, um, Surgeons, and also at the Quilters' Guild, where we've been asking, bringing together different people who work with their hands in different ways-
... and asking them really to reflect on what that work with their hands has meant in their life, but also how it affects how they feel about themselves.
There's so much that we could explore, and the kinds of themes coming up, you know, how we think about how we age, how we think about how we learn skills, how we evolve skills.
Um, sometimes about how those skills improve with age, and then also how age takes some of those skills away from us.
So like when we're thinking about talking about surgeons versus people who have maybe taken up sewing later in life, you know, two completely different experiences of those kinds of things.
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