Ecclesiastical Embroidery by Ruth Black

08/01/2026

We are very sad to announce the passing of our beloved Ruth Black. After a very recent cancer diagnosis she passed away peacefully at the Highland Hospice on St Stephen’s Day, 26th December. We will miss her wonderful creative mind and be forever grateful for her kindness and talent which she shared so graciously.

BLACK
Ruth Catherine (nee Morrison), aged 71, R.I.P. died peacefully on the Feast of St Stephen 2025 in the Highland Hospice. Beloved wife of the Reverend Len Black, loving mother to George, Simon and Mary, grandmother to Rachel, Lauren and Sammy and dear friend to many. Funeral Mass on Monday 12th January at 12 noon in St Mary's R.C. Church, Huntly Street, Inverness; thereafter to Kilvean Cemetery. Wear bright colours. Family flowers only, but donations to the Highland Hospice at the Mass or through John Fraser & Son.
(Shared at her family's request)

31/10/2025

I have recently completed two stoles that look very different, but had the same starting point in my discussions with each client. They liked my Celtic angel design, but could it be modified?
I think you will see from this, the answer is a resounding YES. Click on each photo for more information about what you are seeing.

11/09/2025

I am going to be giving this presentation through Zoom, so if any of my followers are interested in tuning in, please email me and I will give you the link. [email protected]

ATTENTION! Recently, we were gifted a 4-colour set of Stoles, Burses, Veils and Chasubles...
Join the Creator, Ecclesiastical Embroidery by Ruth Black, as she details the detail, in some detail... Doors open to the public at 1630hrs.

04/09/2025

For some reason I had a run of orders of people all wanting the same design for their stoles. It was for a knotwork design that encloses two crosses, one quite obvious, the other less so. "Knot-07 Double cruciform knot with Trinity spiral" is how it's listed on my website. I made two purple stoles and a red stole using this design and show them here alongside a couple of previously made stoles so you can see the design in the main liturgucal colours. This shows how much variation is possible with different colours of appliqué fabric and embroidery threads.
I have also included a couple of photographs a Rodney's Stone, a lovely example of a Pictish stone that uses this style of knotwork design.

13/08/2025

A day off today - As part of Edinburgh’s Festival of Sacred Arts, Old St Paul’s Episcopal Church in the city are hosting a vestments exhibition. I came down from Inverness on the bus this morning, enjoyed a nice lunch and then headed to the church.
It would be lovely to have the time to sit and do this kind of hand embroidery - open to offers from people with very deep pockets😜 but the reality is machine embroidery is what people can afford.
Anyway, it is good that some churches have hung on to their older vestments and still use them for high days and holy days.
Here’s a few pictures from what I saw today.

18/07/2025

I was recently commissioned to make a set of vestments for All Saints Church in Leek, Staffordshire to mark the occasion of their 140th anniversary which happens this weekend.
The church interior is beautiful with stained glass windows by Burne Jones and wall painting by William Morris along with many magnificent old embroideries made by the Leek Embroidery Society. The ideas was not to copy these artworks but be inspired by them and create vestments which will sit well with the style of the church.
Along with various events to mark the occasion (see https://www.tickettailor.com/events/allsaintsleek/1682143 ) there will be a display of vestments, so if you are in the area, maybe go and have a wee look.
For those not able to visit, here are photographs of what I made along with some of the processes involved in the making. Click on each picture for more information.
This set involved quite a lot of experimentation - overdyeing the brocade, painting the silk, weaving the fringes, twisting the cords so there was a lot of work involved. Fortunately there were no disasters, everything turned out okay and arrived safely in time for the celebrations.

11/07/2025

Today I had visitors to my studio... Mostly I am only meeting my clients through the medium of Zoom, but today one of my long-standing clients came all the way from Australia to meet me - and to collect an altar frontal he had commissioned.
It was a delight to meet Michael and his family.
His altar is large - 2.45m wide, so I don't have anywhere in my studio where I can properly display it, but I hope these photos give you an idea of how it will look. Michael will send me photos when the altar frontal is in place back home. In addition to the altar frontal I made a burse and veil and two stoles.
The first picture is me folding up the frontal so that it would fit into the hand luggage case. The work is too precious to trust to hold luggage for the flight home.
The design uses the west face of the Kilchoman Cross (Isle of Islay), the Crown of Thorns and jacaranda trees which are particularly abundant in his NSW neighbourhood.
The jacaranda trees are hand painted and embroidered silk. The tartan is my own Highland Celebration tartan.

15/06/2025

Very often, the commissions I am given are to mark a special occasion - perhaps an ordination or anniversary. One very recently completed was for an altar frontal to mark the 200th anniversary of the Church of Our Lady and St Patrick at Ballymoney in Northern Ireland.
It was a real pleasure to make this altar frontal and I was really happy to be sent photographs of it in use for their bicentenary mass. This message from their priest - "Thank you so much for the magnificent work on the frontal! It's just beautiful and was much admired by everyone at the Mass yesterday evening."
The main fabric used is Passion Flower brocade and all the appliqué work is hand painted silk.
The figures of St Patrick and Our Lady are both from mosaics within this lovely church, as are the border along the bottom edge, the knotwork roundel and the ChiRho with fish.
The fringe along the bottom edge is hand-woven bullion made with silks and metallic threads to match the colours of the embroidery.
And since this is Trinity Sunday - if you look closely below St Patrick you will see a tiny shamrock - legend has it that St Patrick used the shamrock leaf to explain the concept of the Holy Trinity.

07/06/2025

Monday, 9th June is the feast of Saint Columba, a 6th century holy man from Ireland who founded a monastery on Iona and travelled widely in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland converting the Pictish people to Christianity.
It is also The International Day of Celtic Art.
To mark the occasion, I plan to do a live facebook post from my studio at 3pm (UK BST). I will show examples of vestments I have made with my Celtic designs and talk about what actually makes a design "Celtic". I will also look at the difference between a "mistake" and "rubbish". There's a lot of stuff out there claiming to be Celtic, a lot generated by AI, other pieces by people who are too lazy to actually find out what Celtic Art is.
I hope you are able to join me to find out about this intricate and beautiful art form.

30/04/2025

No matter how busy one might be, it's good to take some time out and visit inspiring places.......
No photographs of my work this time, just showing you some sources of inspiration.
I attended an embroidery trade show yesterday near Glasgow and rather than just rush up and down the A9 in one day, we decided to take a mini break and head home slowly via Arbroath. It's a town I haven't visited since childhood, and even then, it was always passing through rather than stopping. All I remember about it was my delight in seeing the "round O" of the ruins of Arbroath Abbey.
Today we went to properly visit. What remains of the Abbey is impressive and in it's day it must have been truly wonderful. There is now a new building adjacent to the Abbey that serves as a museum covering the history of the Abbey and of the "Declaration of Arbroath". The Abbey dedication is to Saint Thomas Becket and I was delighted to discover a very detailed statue that is believed to represent the saint. The orphrey detailing is lovely as you can see in these photographs.
Also visited today, St Vigean's Museum of sculptured Pictish stones. I definietely got lot's of inspiration for future embroidery projects.

21/04/2025

Happy Easter to all my many facebook friends and followers.
Today I was sent this lovely photograph from St Mary's Church, Broughty Ferry. Over the last few months they have commissioned me to make new vestments in each of the main liturgical colours. This is the final set, and I got it to them just in time for their first use on Easter Day.
The tartan is the Clergy tartan and the cross is St Martin's Cross from Iona. The design is loosely based on various Tree of Life / Vinescroll designs as found on various Pictish and medieval sculptured stones and in the Book of Kell.