Sue Stone is a British artist who is best known for her richly layered textile works, where storytelling and stitch come together. She was born and raised in Great Grimsby, N E Lincolnshire; once one of the world’s busiest fishing ports. As a quiet reference to her heritage and coastal roots Sue often includes a fish within her compositions.
Working mainly with hand and free-machine embroidery, Sue frequently combines stitch with appliqué and acrylic gouache to build texture, atmosphere and depth.Her ideas grow from lived experience, observation and the small details of everyday life. The figures and scenes she creates often suggest more than one meaning, encouraging you to pause, look closely and find your own interpretation.
An avid collector of imagery, Sue gathers photographs, textures, colours, patterns and fragments of text as part of an ongoing personal archive. The overlooked and unexpected become important reference points, with different images and ideas gradually merging within her compositions.
Sue studied fashion design at St Martins School of Art and then embroidery at Goldsmiths College, University of London during the 1970s; Constance Howard led the department and embroidery was taught as an art-form. After completing her studies, she returned to her hometown and went on to have a long career in clothing design and manufacture before returning to embroidery in 2003.
Touch and the physical connection with cloth remain central to her practice. Sue describes the slow process of building an image through stitch as an essential part of her work, valuing both the tactile qualities of fabric and the histories already held within it.
Sue Stone’s work has been exhibited widely throughout the UK, Europe, the USA, Australia and Asia. She is an Honorary Exhibiting Member and former Chair (2013–2018) of the 62 Group of Textile Artists and a Fellow of the Society of Designer Craftsmen.
Alongside exhibiting, Sue has taught internationally, including online courses for textileartist.org, and ‘in person’ workshops in France, Canada and the USA. Her work is held in public and private collections worldwide and has appeared in numerous books and publications on contemporary textiles and embroidery.
