Block Printing

Her printed patterns, made with lino blocks, often used two simple but opposed geometric motifs.

Nature had a profound influence on her work: she wrote, "patterns come from everywhere; from shadows ... from birds in flight ... from bits of metal, houses, rain, wind on sand". Her pupils were sent to look at the lines in nature - on the backs of beetles, caterpillars and shells - and her palette related closely to the Devon landscape, mostly limited to browns, blues and their mixture as greens.

Susan Bosence's blocks

Working from one end of the fabric towards the other (rolled up) a metre of cloth was printed, covered with paper, rolled up and the process continued. The first print was always made in the centre of the cloth’s width and worked out towards the selvedge.