Suzanne began working with clay while accompanying her husband during their years living in the Middle East in the 1960s and 70s. She came to make clay her home ground and something she could take with her wherever she lived.
She discovered Oribe ware – Japanese tea ceramics associated with the Kaiseki meal and tea ceremony – whose glazes and playful geometric decoration greatly influenced her aesthetic. She ultimately decided to import English porcelain clay so she would have continuity wherever she worked and for the same reasons travelled with a small electric kiln.
Returning to England in the 1980s, Suzanne studied ceramics at Croydon College of Art. There she developed a distinctive style, combining printed geometric silkscreen enamel transfers with contrasting poured fields of colour on finely thrown porcelain vessels. Unglazed areas reveal subtle interactions between clay and glaze, bringing texture and depth to the surface.
During the late 1980s and 90s, she exhibited widely in solo and group shows at notable galleries including: Beaux Art, Bath and Abbott Hall Gallery, Kendall; and her work entered several private and public collections, among them those of Charles Jencks (The Cosmic House), the V&A Museum, and the Hong Kong Tea Museum.
In more recent years, Suzanne has explored hand-building techniques to alleviate the physical strain of throwing and has become increasingly interested in the philosophical and symbolic dimensions of ceramics. This curiosity eventually led her to retrain as a psychotherapist, a practice she continues alongside her lifelong engagement with clay.
