An association of Cornwall's finest craft makers

Spooner, Sue
Textiles

Although specialising in Sculpture and printmaking at Cardiff College of Art, Sue became perversely interested in experimenting with weaving during a Post Graduate year at Goldsmiths' College. She set up her own textile workshop in Cornwall, and was awarded an Arts Council Grant in 1975 and a South West Arts Major Award in 1978.
Her work as a textile artist is a response to experience of place and memory. She is motivated by sensations experienced in particular places - seeing arrangements of patterns or colours in the landscape or in the built environment, where man-made structures stand as historical witnesses to struggle or efforts of will.
These influences are interpreted through drawing and photography into images woven in tapestry on a foot-power loom. The making of woven tapestry is extremely labour-intensive, but Sue finds it an absorbing process - building a piece from the bottom to the top by manipulation of yarn and thread, using balance of colour and surface with control of the structure as the weaving progresses.
Her materials are hand-dyed worsted-spun wool, silk and cotton; and range of work varies from small, finely-detailed woven and stitched pieces to larger heavier-weight hangings and rugs.