hello

I’m Susanna

I am the daughter of an architect and an artist, the granddaughter of builders and carpenters and menders.

From my earliest memories, I loved to imagine building things - I was obsessed with the idea of a treehouse for a long while, as well as with fixing up and saving old and neglected places. Truth be told, I still hold the dream of a perfect little haven in the branches of a tree in my heart.

When I was a very little girl, my grandfather would let me play with pieces of wood and a hand saw in his workshop while he worked on projects. His workspace was a repurposed bomb shelter deep under the garden of my grandparents’ home. It smelled of sawdust and his pipe smoke. I still have and treasure a sewing box he made for me.

My grandmother taught me to sew and knit and embroider. She was from a generation that made and mended their own socks and sweaters and clothes; I hope I’m carrying with me what she taught me.

I have been in my life so far, a classically-trained painter and illustrator, a special effects animator, a floral designer and maker of naturally-dyed ribbons. Along the way I’ve made things that seemed needful - shelves and tables and boxes, a flower cart and various camper vans and tiny homes on wheels.

Often people will say that the variety of things I have done for a living seem an unusual juxtaposition of skills, but to me it’s all the same: things you do with your hands and your heart and your eyes.

My grandfather would create small inventions to make life a little easier - a tool to help prune high branches, a tool to hold open a door. He called them Things Of Purpose and that’s where the name for this part of my working life came from.