Fibre artist Susan Taylor Brown has enrolled in several Fibre Arts Take Two online courses over the past few years, including Joyful Embroidery with Fleur Woods, which has helped her to grow as an artist and move forward in her art practice.
Filmed on location in New Zealand, Joyful Embroidery focuses on reconnecting with the joy of creativity, expanding your creative toolkit and finding your mark to create truly individual artwork.
Susan has completed Joyful Embroidery, along with several of our other Signature courses, but during this course, she didn’t learn a single new stitch. It wasn’t about the stitches; it was about something more profound for Susan. Hear how she went from stitch sampling book covers to layered and textural embroidery landscapes that sell…
Drifting with No Direction
In a story that might sound familiar to some, Susan was drifting without real direction before starting with Fibre Arts Take Two.
“Before taking any classes at Fibre Arts Take Two, I felt like I was drifting,” Susan explains. “I was having a lot of fun, and I was making a lot of stuff, and I confess, I was a little bit commercial in my making, I was looking at what I could make and sell instead of looking at how I could develop as an artist, so I started looking at the different artists that I admired on Instagram, that was where I found Fibre Arts Take Two. When I discovered the classes and the opportunity to possibly learn from the artists that I admired, I got excited because I knew I had been drifting all over the place. I had no direction, no main passion. I just knew I wanted to make stuff.”
Looking back, Susan felt like she hadn’t been growing creatively at this stage, “I felt like I was just sort of doing what I saw everybody else doing on YouTube. I started watching lots of videos on YouTube and seeing somebody else was making a journal, I would make a journal, somebody else would make an envelope, I would make an envelope. I was making lots of stuff, but I wasn't growing, I couldn't feel any passion, and I wanted to find something that I would get up in the morning and say, ‘It's time. I can't wait to get into the studio. I can't wait to sit down and work on something.’"
Why Joyful Embroidery?
Susan hadn’t done a lot of stitch in other classes and that is what initially appealed to her about Joyful Embroidery, but it was also the reason why she almost didn’t take the course.
“Fleur’s class appealed to me because of that, but it was also the reason I almost didn't take it is because I thought, well, she's going to teach embroidery, and I felt like I already knew enough embroidery, because, you know, there was, there was a finite limit in my head. I could learn just enough. But then I realised, in all the other classes I had taken, even Harriet's class on weaving, I had been making cordage before then. And I haven't really made a complete basket, but the cordage carried forward to the stitch, because you would have to stitch the baskets together.”
All this came together for Susan… “I thought, well, I need to take a chance on this embroidery class, because it's not like I know everything about embroidery. I only know a few stitches. And maybe there's something from this that I can take, because I took something from each of these other classes, and it was like each class gave me a little pour into my cup of creativity and a little bit more and a little bit more.”
Enrolling and working through Joyful Embroidery opened something up for Susan. “...now I feel like my cup of creativity is overflowing, because I can go back to my other classes. You know, I've got this wonderful education in all these classes that I have taken from Fibre Arts Take Two.”
On The Fence
At the start, Susan was actually on the fence about Joyful Embroidery, and it was actually the stitch that got Susan hooked.
“... one of the reasons I was on the fence about it was her beautiful flowers. Oh my gosh. They're just absolutely gorgeous flowers, and they're so vibrant, so colourful. Anybody who has ever seen any of my work or listened to some of my videos will know that one colour I will never use is pink. I just can't use it. And so it was like, this whole colour palette in the garden is beautiful to look at, or flowers that somebody might bring you. But it didn't get me all excited. But the stitch, I mean, she had me hooked with the stitch.”
So if I'm talking to somebody who's thinking about a class, and in fact, I did have somebody send me a message and said, ‘Should I take Fleur’s class?’ She's like, ‘I don't know if this is the kind of art that I want to make.’
Susan saw beyond the flowers, “And I said, ‘You know what? You should absolutely take this class. It doesn't matter if you want to make flowers if you want to make trees if you want to work in a single colour palette if you want to do something completely outside of the realm of what you see in Fleur’s art, because Fleur’s art comes from Fleur's heart. And what you will learn in this class is how to develop your own colour palette that speaks to your own heart so that it doesn't matter what you want to stitch, you're going to have the tools to make it uniquely your own.’”
The Turning Point
One particular moment during Joyful Embroidery had a particular impact on Susan.
“The turning point for me in Fleur’s course, absolutely without a doubt, was when she held up a skein of yarn and said, stitch with wool. And my mind was blown.”
“I had been stitching with embroidery floss, and that was what I had remembered doing as a kid, and that was why I was kind of on the fence about signing up for the class in the first place because embroidery floss was not fun for me. I am a texture fiend. I want to use materials that feel good in my hands, and if something doesn't feel good in my hands, I can't use it.”
“So when Fleur said ‘try all the things. I love to stitch with wool.’ And I'm like, whoa! So, thanks to Fleur, I have a lot of wool. I have become addicted to stitching with wool. That's my happy place.”
But it wasn’t the only turning point for Susan, “...the other one had to be because Fleur, her method of teaching and creating, about finding joy in every stitch… It was like I needed Fleur to give me permission to dive into my heart's work.”
Conquering Perfectionism
Susan has been able to move forward with her art thanks to the courses she has taken with Fibre Arts Take Two, “They have helped me feel braver about myself and my art,” she says, “and that I don't have to fight with a perfectionist that is like this monkey on my back all the time. I mean, this really nasty voice is always in my ear, telling me I'm not good enough. Luckily, every single teacher that I have had through Fibre Arts Take Two has said, ‘Throw the perfectionism away and just create from your heart, create with joy.’ I feel like I am now a lot freer to experiment with any kind of material. Can I get something through the eye of a needle? Then I can probably stitch with it. Can I mix water or paint with something? I can probably attach it to something. I am a lot more experimental in my art now, which can only mean great things for my art going forward.”
After Joyful Embroidery
Thanks to the courses Susan has taken with Fibre Arts Take Two, including Joyful Embroidery, her confidence and art practice have improved.
Through Joyful Embroidery Fleur opened Susan’s eyes to what it means to think like an artist and with Fleur’s guidance, Susan found what truly made her heart sing – and had life-changing moments that redefined her creative practice.
“... I find myself thinking about myself differently and the way I present myself to the art world, and suddenly I’m not whining about a project not coming together. I'm more confident about how I present myself in the world.”
Just like we all aim for, Susan is now doing what she loves, everyday. “The fact that I can get up everyday and do something I absolutely love and possibly inspire somebody else, possibly inspire myself, and possibly interest somebody in buying a piece of my art, or, as recently happened, invited to be in my first exhibition. These are all changes that have come about in the last year to two years that I've been taking these classes.”
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Is Joyful Embroidery right for you?
Susan is clear on her advice to people thinking about enrolling in Joyful Embroidery but are not 100% sure…
“So if you are thinking about taking a course from Fibre Arts Take Two, I want to say… First, I understand your hesitation. I was used to spending money to go to writers conferences, but because I didn't feel like a professional artist, I wasn't selling a lot of my work. I wasn't even sure if I was going to sell my work. I didn't know if I was worth investing in the classes…”
“I will say that I do not regret a single penny that I have paid for any of the classes. I have gotten something out of every one of them.”
“And I don't know that Fleur introduced me to any new stitches, but she introduced me to a new way of thinking about how I stitched. All of the teachers in the Fibre Arts Take Two classes have taught me a different way of looking at my art, at their art, and at the art of being a creative being, and that was absolutely priceless for me.”
Advice to Aspiring Artists
Susan is often asked how long it takes to create a piece, “I can't tell you how many hours I put into something because I don't want to know, because it doesn't matter to me,” she says, “Stitch is something that takes, notoriously, a long time. Why do we have to be in a hurry to finish something? There is not somebody waiting at my door. They're not going to knock on my door and say, ‘Hey, Susan, I understand that you are working on this wildscape, and I can't wait to see it because here's the money, and I want to buy it from you.’ That's not happening in my world!
What's happening is I am taking joy from every fibre, every stitch, every time I pull that needle through the fabric. There is this little adrenaline burst of joy that happens in me, and I do not want to be in a hurry. I really am working on maintaining the mindset that going slow is going to improve my art because I'm making very deliberate choices about what I'm doing. If you're creating something because you want to experience the joy of stitch, if you're creating a piece of art because you want to make a gift to give to somebody you love, you should be taking your time with that because you should be doing the creative part that you love, and should be pouring your heart into it, and there should be no timetable.”
“...if you're creating a piece of art, it's going to take as long as it's going to take.”
About Joyful Embroidery
Hosted by tutor and artist Fleur Woods, Joyful Embroidery welcomes students from all over the world. Participants include both new and experienced artists who are able to stitch and learn at their own pace while they experiment, expand their skills and join the contemporary stitch revolution!
This course is an experience that supports genuine creativity, empowering students to create mixed media embroideries and textile collages with texture, layers, and embellishments with confidence. And with lifetime access to course materials and videos the creative possibilities are endless.
Register to be notified when this course will be made available to new students.
About Susan Taylor Brown
After a career writing children’s books and teaching writing to at-risk youth art was actually a way for Susan to procrastinate instead of writing! But her love for art grew, as did her art practice and now Susan is a fibre artist who is absolutely obsessed with texture, French knots, and the colour green.
Susan enjoys experimenting and playing around with ideas and practising until she understands how to coax the fibres into what she wants. In Susan’s own words… “Sometimes the experiments work. Other times, not so much. But it is the journey, the process of pulling fibres through the fabric, that gives me the energy to continue to stitch every day.”
Susan lives in the Santa Cruz mountains of California with her husband and their dog Tali, who loves to steal balls of wool when Susan isn’t paying attention. You can view more of Susan's work on Instagram and her website.
