Susan Furneaux is an award-winning artist and craft consultant who merges technical skill with solid design concepts. She specialises in natural dyes and fibres, teaching and exhibiting her work globally. She currently instructs at the College of the North Atlantic’s Textile & Apparel Design, focusing on finely crafted objects that reflect her connection to
her environment.
Intimacy with materials in process and place is the foundation of her work. She nurtures, forages and processes her materials; her art and homesteading lifestyle are inseparable. The seasons, the ebbs and flows of nature are present in the materials. The practice is a ritual of connection and integration with her environment where the cycle of life and death are ever present. This work is reflective of her ancestors’ tradition of ‘making do’, skilled makers who created beautiful work with what was close by.
“In the past few years, the focus of my work has shifted. I have always worked with natural fibre, but more recently have been inspired by the fibre found at my feet, the fibre that enamoured me as a child and captivated me in the world of textiles. Dandelions, cottonwood, linden and birch are where it all started. I now want to create with local natural fibre using traditional methods and explore the subtitles of colour found in the materials themselves. I want to move away from natural dyes and revel in the natural colours of my materials.
My time in Ireland allowed me the time to study these things. Connecting with Irish knowledge keepers, I learned methods of working with textile materials in traditional ways. I found inspiration in the geophysical, historical, social and cultural similarities between our two islands that share their shores with the North Atlantic. The residency gave me time to think, ponder and experiment towards my new direction; my newest work is reflective of the material and techniques learned during my time at Artlink”.
During her residency Susan created small-scale textile pieces, a tribute to the Newfoundlanders who perished in the sinking of the Laurentic in 1917. Several of these pieces were included in Earth Rising, at IMMA in October 2022.
- August 31, 2022
