Suzanna James

2021 QEST Ashley Family Foundation Scholar - Knitted Textiles
Glamorgan

Suzanna is a maker of handcrafted textiles who is dedicated to ethics and sustainability. Wool is her favourite material and she believes it can play a vital role in creating more sustainable textiles. Suzanna worked collaboratively with local companies to create her ‘Adre’ collection (meaning ‘home’ in Welsh) using organic Welsh wool that was reared, sheared, and dyed within a 15-mile area. For another project, she visited Antauta, Peru to work with the Antauta Knitters as part of her socially engaged textiles practice.  

Suzanna is continuing her research and applying it to her own practice on an MA in Textiles at the Royal College of Art, London. A QEST Scholarship will fund her second year, during which she will continue her in-depth study of sustainable and ethical materials and develop textile storytelling as a key part of her practice. 

Suzanna has taught and lectured at Cardiff Metropolitan University, Carmarthen School of Art and the University of Northampton, and has run workshops in Wales and Peru. She hopes that, through both teaching and her practice, she will be an advocate for a broader range of textile craft practices here in the UK, inspire individuals to create close connections to textile crafts and ultimately revalue undervalued craft practices.

Photo credits: Chloe Grayson + ‘Wide Vicinity’ 

The multitudinous ways cloth is made form an irreplaceable part of the human story, translated into cloth. Cloth is a vital spokesperson whose voice I listen to through my practice, and I believe craft is a force to be reckoned with, a vehicle for change.

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