living with nature
Susannah lives off-grid on a canal boat on the Grand Union canal just outside London with eight quails. She uses plants along the towpath for natural dyes.
Workshops and talks
I offer workshops and talks for adults and children about organic and permaculture gardening and traditional crafts. Book me here.
Traditional wool skills course: spinning, dyeing and felting starting Wednesday 9th April
Garden designer
I design private gardens and community spaces.
My balcony design won Camden in Bloom Best Mini-Garden 2021 (right). More details.
Woad and Weld workshop on Sunday 9th March: blues from woad, yellows from weld, greens overdyeing both and reds/pinks from madder.
Feedback
“Absolutely exalted, it was more than I hoped for, and all I wished for!”
“Thank you – really enjoyed it!”
Susannah’s teaching style was
“Excellent”
“Really accessible – clear & open to questions”
“Coaxing… not dogmatic except when it mattered”
Spring 2025 workshops
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Traditional wool skills course – spinning, dyeing and felting
Wednesdays 6.30pm-8.30pm
9th, 30th April, 14th, 28th May
Kentish Town City Farm, NW5 4BNCome along to learn about the traditions of hand-spinning with a drop-spindle and felting. This introductory course will start by meeting the Jacobs sheep at the Kentish Town City Farm whose wool we’ll be spinning. You’ll learn how to use a drop spindle and once spun we’ll ply into yarn and then dye with plant dyes. Finally you’ll learn how to make felt, making a felt pouch.
Timetable:
Week 1: Meet the Jacob’s sheep and their wool. Learn about processing wool: washing and carding. Start spinning with a drop spindle.
Week 2: Focus on spinning with a drop spindle. Learning about plying and fulling.
Week 3: Dyeing the yarn you have spun. Learning about mordanting and dyeing with plant dyes.
Week 4: Learning about felting and how to make felt. Make a felt pouch.
No experience necessary. -
Madder and Weld – Natural dye workshop
Learning about red and yellow that comes from plants
Saturday 26th April 12.30pm-4.30pm
£60
Calthorpe Community Garden, Kings Cross
Very few plants produce a red dye. We’ll be using the traditional Madder to produce a range of reds and pinks. The roots of madder have been used for thousands of years in England because the plant is hardy enough to survive our winters.
We’ll dip-dye to blend with yellow from Weld and over-dye to create oranges.No experience necessary.
You’ll take away two silk scarves you’ve dyed.
This silk scarf has been dyed with madder, a traditional plant dye that uses roots from the madder plant (Rubia tinctorum). It is a beautiful red colour
The size of the scarf is 114cm x 28cm.
This silk scarf has been dyed with woad, a traditional plant dye that uses the leaves of the Woad plant (Isatis tinctoria).
The size of the scarf is 114cm x 28cm.
This silk scarf has been dyed with weld, a traditional plant dye that uses the weld plant (Reseda luteola). It is a beautiful yellow colour
The size of the scarf is 114cm x 28cm.
