We invited textile artist Susie Cottee to to join the group and exhibit with us at our next show in March 2025.
Susie is a very talented artist and we are delighted she has joined us.
I have been sewing for as long as I can remember. Thankfully my mother was (and still is!) a compulsive purchaser of fabric, so there was always something for me to play with; I’d make dolls clothes, and mostly unwearable clothes for myself. I wanted to be a fashion designer since I was young and moved to London from rural Derbyshire to do just that. I enjoyed it for several years but was happy for the opportunity for a change of direction. I have been lucky enough to be taught for several years by Louise Baldwin on the creative textiles course at City Lit, which has been a wonderful and transformative experience. I’m excited to have been invited to exhibit with these talented and brilliant women in textiles2020. I can’t wait for the next exhibition, and I continue to enjoy the inspiration and focus induced by their generous sharing of work, support and ideas.
Ghost Dress
Having moved away from, and to an extent, rejected fashion design, I feel conflicted about my persistent urge to make art garments or pieces which evoke garments.
For this ‘dress’, I printed, marked and stained muslin which I then stitched into tubes and hand stitched together to form a dress; not quite a dress, nearly a dress…
Daughter
Eco dyed and stained cotton, layered with wool and patched with significant and repurposed printed and plain, stained and damaged scraps. My middle daughter attended a democratic boarding school in Suffolk, which she left last year. She has been allowed to be free and grow true to herself. This piece started as a garment, but evolved into a shawl or wrap to strengthen and hold her in the more conventional world which she is entering now. I am drawn to the spaces between wildness and domesticity, the wild in this piece is born from the idea of my daughter being protected by various talismans drawn from natural life: acorns, dyes from natural plants, prayers and spells. My life as a mother to three children is inevitably heavily based in the domestic, and whilst I am settled and content, I crave some wildness. Maybe the Derbyshire countryside, or a storm.
Stitched Squares
My textiles work can be very intuitive; I often feel like Fdon’t know what the plan is until it happens; I don’t know when I’m going to stop until I stop. I would say this is especially true of the stitched squares I am currently working on; despite them being time consuming, it feels like they almost make themselves. I often become drawn to a particular shape; my current obsession is an almost-house shape, and I think that this shape lends a homely and somewhat comforting feeling to these pieces. I have used old used domestic cloths; tea towels, muslins, flannels and dressmaking scraps.
I’m currently working on something completely different and am learning quilting techniques. This work-in-progress is a quilt top; I’m not sure when it will be finished. This feels like it’s the polar opposite to the small, insular yet somewhat comforting stitched squares.
Exhibitions
Unfolding, textiles2020, Espacio Gallery, London, May 2026
Perspectives, textiles2020, Espacio Gallery, London, March 2025Follow Susie on Instagram: @s.c.textilesart