About the Artist

WOVEN TIME

Susan Bradshaw

Susan was born and raised in Colorado. At the age of six her family moved to Broomfield, a suburb of Denver. There she attended elementary and high school. She was a tom boy and brought home her share of frogs and snakes for keeping in the aquarium downstairs. The family had dogs and cats, tropical fish and a green parakeet named Chico. Her memories of home include the annual summer camping trips to the Rocky Mountains near Steamboat Springs. The four children were packed in the car, along with the canvas tent her Grandfather had given her Father, ice chest, fishing poles, and all the assorted accessories deemed necessary for a week in the mountains. At this point in time the roads in this part of the Rocky Mountains were dirt logging roads, the campsite was the single tent in the middle of the meadow, and we hardly ever saw another fisherman during the days spent fly fishing on the local streams. The forest was a mix of conifers and aspen. The streams were usually bordered with willow. The fishing challenge was not losing the hand-tied flies in those willows.

After graduating from high school, Susan attended Colorado State University. She graduated with a B.S., with Honors, in Zoology. While attending CSU she met and married her husband, Stephen. During those years, every free class period was filled with an art class, usually drawing.

When they graduated from CSU, Stephen's degree in Electronic Engineering landed him his first job in King City, California. After a year there, they moved to Salinas, CA. After several years in Salinas, they moved to the rural setting, near Moss Landing, CA, where they are still located.

Their two boys grew up in the country, and learned to take care of the various animals Susan has had over the years.

Susan continues going to school. In addition to taking art classes, she has studied such subjects as computer programming, court reporting, and machining. While employed as a machinist Susan attended a company wide self development course. To answer the challenge of coming up with a single sentence, which would describe yourself to your boss, Susan came up with "I am a maker". This eye opening event, this formal acknowledgement of being a maker lead to Susan's being a producing artist.

Through all these years Susan was always doing some art project or another. She did the usual macramé plant hangers, quilting, spinning and weaving. She joined the Carmel Crafts guild, and as a spinner and weaver won many first place ribbons and several Best in Show Awards at the Monterey County Fair, and the Conference of Northern California Handweavers. In 1997 she took a polymer clay class to learn how to make buttons with which to embellish her weavings with. With the discovery of polymer clay Susan found the material which would open the door to becoming a selling artist. Polymer clay allowed her to play with color, pattern, repeat, and small sculptural pieces. In 1997, she enrolled in her first painting class. Her insistence that she was going to paint with water colors rather than acrylics, and the instructor's instance that the class was going to only use one red, one blue, and one yellow tube of paint to mix all their colors from, paved the way to Susan's current understanding of how to use color, and her fluid sense of design.

In December of 2001 Susan's son Chris introduced her to sand blasting on glass. Thus began her love of the dance of light with glass.

In December of 2003 Susan received a glass fusing kiln and started fusing and slumping glass. In June of 2004 she attended her first glass fusing class “The Glass Sketch” at the Bullseye Connection in Portland, OR. In May of 2005 she attended Avery Anderson's class "It's All About Image - Creating Imagery in Kiln Formed Glass". May of 2006 found Woven Time participating in First Fridays Art Walk in Oldtown, Salinas. May 2007 found Susan in Calgary, Canada. She attended Bob Leatherbarrow's Powder Workshop,

Susan is an active member of the Aromas Hills Artisans, and Carmel Crafts Guild. Susan has had two gallery shows at the Seminar Galley at Hartnell College, Salinas CA. She regularly enters juried shows, and has won many blue ribbons. Susan loves the outdoors, the ocean, the mountains and nature, which account for the themes in her art.

Last modified: June 12, 2008