Bosence, Susan

Susan Bosence was born in Luton, Bedfordshire in 1913 . She worked at the New Education Fellowship in London, moving to the post of secretary to W. B. Curry, the headmaster of Dartington Hall School, Devon in 1939 . She married Wilfred Bosence, a teacher at Dartington, in 1942 . Whilst raising a family at Dartington she began, without formal training, to produce printed and dyed fabrics for domestic use.

Bosence's introduction to block printed textiles was through the Elmhirsts, who owned the Dartington estate and who had examples of Phyllis Barron and Dorothy Larcher's work from the 1920's and 1930's . She visited Barron and Larcher's home in 1951 and Barron encouraged and advised her when she first started working with textiles, becoming Barron's only 'student'. Block printing developed gradually using lino-printed patterns. Her designs were developed from close observation of landscape and nature or were purely abstract, often incorporating spots or stripes. Many early experiments focused on resist-dyeing, combining wax and stitch-resists on cotton. Her favourite dyes included indigo and rust.

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