Susie Walker lives in a small North Yorkshire village in the Esk Valley. Her home is on a breezy hillside between the woods and the moor.

Susie grew up in a village pub, with a gallery in an old cow byre. Summers were busy but winters were quiet. Her father occasionally found the time to carve wooden animals and her mother would sit on the ‘cool end’ of the huge kitchen stove with her Fair Isle knitting. She used Shetland wool which came along with a sample card. It had tiny strands of what seemed like every colour imaginable. In a world that was mostly brown, Susie loved this card and it made the Shetland Islands seem impossibly exotic and far away.

One of the highlights of her young life were the bi-annual sheep sales which both took place in the autumn in a field behind the pub. It was a busy time. The family would apply to the magistrates for a special license to keep the bar open all day. Various ‘Aunties’ would appear to lend a hand. Pies were made. A tongue was boiled for sandwiches. The carpets would be rolled back. It was a last hectic push before winter set in. But Susie was keeping out of the way. Looking at the sheep,. trying to identify their different voices and smelling their wool.

So perhaps it was destiny that Susie would one day find herself making small animals from colourful wool. She first discovered needle felting back in 2010 during a random image search. Immediately, She knew she had to find out how it was done, so she ordered a selection of needles, gathered some fleece from the hedgerows and made a start. She has never looked back since and is now a member of the International Felt Makers Association.

Susie has always loved animals and the sight of a hare crossing her path or the bright tail of a fox vanishing over a dry stone wall always makes her day.

She studied Fine Art at Harrogate and Sunderland, eventually specialising in sculpture. There, she became interested in Celtic art and folklore. This developed into the life long interest in medieval illustration and the mythologies and lore associated with animals and plants. These are the themes which inform her work today.

She still regards needle felting as a magical process and enjoys teaching others.