As a wildlife biologist and botanist Susie has always loved the subject material that she uses for her carvings. When she moved to Revelstoke, BC, she was so excited to join the potter’s guild at the Revelstoke Visual Arts Centre which welcomed her and gave her the space to develop an artistic interest to balance her work in the sciences. While Susie’s ceramic skills were pretty rusty, other potters and ceramic artists helped her learn to make ceramic pieces and use the Sgraffito decoration technique, which involves painting and carving a 2-dimensional image on the surface of leather-hard (not entirely dry) clay. Susie is constantly learning, and her work has evolved quite a bit over time. She currently balances work as a biologist, but continues to develop her ceramic art in tandem.