The story behind the brand…
This is me…
Hello, I’m Charlotte, the founder & designer maker here at Flowers for Susie.
I have been a designer and creative my whole adult life since completing my degree and masters degree at Central Saint Martin’s back in the 90’s. Designing for many prominent British brands including Wedgwood & John Lewis I just love to create, always have, always will.
Originally established as a creative charity project in 2014 in memory of my mother Susie, Flowers for Susie is now an established textile design business right here in the heart of Dorset.
At the beginning of 2020 and after a surprise redundancy and of course the dreaded Covid 19 pandemic lockdown I started to form the idea of Flowers for Susie as a business as well as a charity project. Developing the print skills and the ideas I’d dabbled in through some of my fundraising projects, I started to form the aesthetic of my brand.
Who is Susie?
‘Susie’ was my Mum…s
he was also an artist.
This is an old photograph of her in her ceramic studio many years ago, I first fell in love with creativity & ceramics in that studio and went back to help teach her Saturday class when I was doing my ceramics degree. This woman created the opportunities for me, a girl from Oldham, to have a creative career. She nurtured my creative soul, took me to creative courses, pushed me to think outside of the world I lived in, challenged me to go for colleges I felt where beyond me and supported me with every step of my creative journey through the good and the bad.
Sadly, she passed away from a rare cancer in 2013, just after the birth of my second child and in that moment my whole world fell apart. Broken by grief and lost in a world without her I started to draw and create to escape. That first year I sketched every evening after my children went to bed, I could lose myself in the sketch and feel connected to her too.
Flowers for Susie was born out of this creativity, and as a charity project was a way of giving back in her memory which to me felt like a positive way to channel the grief. Now as I grow my creative business, I feel totally blessed to call this my job and honour her life and her creativity each & every day through the designs I create and the charity support I give.
Where it all began…
Charity came first…
Following the months of sketching and creating in the year after mums death I decided to embark on a creative charity project to mark the 1 year anniversary. To be honest, I was struggling as the anniversary approached and this seemed like a positive distraction.
The project that first year was actually a make not a sketch as I made 160 Flower brooches in in an array of vintage style prints. I raised over £800 with that first project which was no mean feet when each flower cost £5!
The name was born from this project too and just seemed to fit, funny how these things happen.
Charity projects are still so important to Flowers for Susie and whilst my initial fundraising was directly linked to the AMMF (a specific charity related to my mum’s cancer) I now raise money for, or give my time to Michael House homeless hostel here in Dorset. My mum Susie was a glorious, kind, compassionate woman who cared deeply about others less fortunate so this union seems a perfect choice for my small business.