Curly

One of Sue's characterful dogs in layered textiles.

About Sue Britton

Sue has a BA in Textile Design. After leaving college she free-lanced as a textile designer before returning to textiles after attending a course on free motion embroidery.

Sue says, “This excited me hugely as it enabled me to embody everything I love doing in art and design. It is great that I am now drawing, pattern making and using colour in my textile work.”

INSPIRATION

My inspiration is our own three dogs; an Irish Setter and two Cocker Spaniels. Our local dog rescue home where I do voluntary dog walking has also become an amazing source of inspiration since I've started sketching & stitching dogs!

DOG DESIGNS

My aim is to capture the characters of dogs and their antics in my designs and so my drawings are often of 'made up' cross breeds which may suggest certain breed characteristics e.g. big ears or a long furry coat, although some are very recognisable like our cocker spaniels!

COLOUR

My bold use of colour is inspired by artists such as Kandinsky, Delaunay, Klimt & the Abstract Expressionism Movement.

PATTERN

My patterns derive from many natural and man-made images. My training as a textile designer has given me a huge awareness of all the patterns in nature and in design that surround me everywhere I look! I also just love to decorate and embellish surfaces.

PROCESS

My pictures are made by stitching different materials & fibres onto a background fabric thus creating a riot of colour & pattern. My stitching then becomes ‘taking a line for a walk’ with a sewing machine needle to further embellish patterns and couch on fibres. My dogs are created separately by sketching with stitching to create texture and character. Finally the dogs are attached to the background & sometimes 3-dimensionally to add movement.

See more work currently available from Sue.