In the spring of 2023, I started threading this piece. My father was diagnosed with lung cancer in May, and I was diagnosed with Cushing Syndrome, a mass had grown on my adrenal gland and would need to be removed. It was making my hormones haywire. I was sick and tired, I had gained over thirty pounds, headaches, and palpitations. I was trying to beat a deadline. I was going in for surgery on August 2nd. I finished threading on July 28th. I began teaching on August 23rd. Because it was abdominal surgery I was supposed to do very little for 6-8 weeks. In October I finally was feeling a bit like myself. However, my father went in for emergency gall bladder surgery on November 13th. He was undergoing treatment for lung cancer and was in between chemo and radiation. On November 28th he died, the cancer had traveled to his liver, and spread very quickly when they took his gall bladder. His funeral was on December 5th. I then began the process of taking care of his estate. Over Christmas break I finally wove the piece. It is titled Equinox​, after my mother and father. She was born on the fall equinox and he was born on the spring. My parents complemented each other. In this piece the design in reverse on each side. The beauty of the piece is contrasted with the challenges of this year. It is a piece of patience, process, grief, and healing. 

I began threading seven table top looms in January of 2023. Throughout the remainder of the school year the looms were available for students to weave on. I also had the looms available during my Art Show for the students of St Paul's. 

The rainbow warp

Looms in the classroom

The students love weaving and working with the machines.

Weaving during the art show, looms on the move. 

Last year I acquired five looms in need of some love. This summer my husband and father helped me repair them before we put them in storage. 

Weaving is an art that needs to be kept alive. In my tiny efforts I plan to teach the craft in the future. However it requires a lot of space. 

These have been repaired and safely stored in our dry basement. My dream is to one day unleash them with ambitious students!

It's been a long haul. In 2019 I made the decision to return to school for my second degree in art education and certification. I graduated in 2021 being a "special student" of age, and many of my foundation courses already fulfilled wit my degree in Studio arts. In 2022 I entered a certification program to teach in our parochial school which required intensive study of doctrine and theology. To make things even more complicated I was diagnosed with Cushing's syndrome in March which required an Adrenalectomy. The surgery was scheduled this summer and currently I am in the thick of recovery. I have used my skills I learned all those years ago in cross country; slow and steady wins the race. I have a new piece threaded on my loom, over the course of many months I was able to thread it just before surgery. I will be able to weave in September or October. 

I began measuring warp for the optical illusion piece in early March. The warm colors alternate with the cool and dark colors.

Threading took many months as I completed the last of my theology courses. 

Just before my surgery, I spend a few intense days threading and winding on the loom. I was able to get my piece ready to be woven after my recovery. I look forward to completing it this fall.

Pastoral Stole 2022-23. 

This winter all goes forward in the studio. I was able to complete a few pieces on my looms. First, a purple weaving on the Kessenich Loom. This weaving went to my sister-in-law for Christmas. She was moving to a hospice facility after over a decade battle with terminal breast cancer. Purple is her favorite color and she wore the shawl as she moved. She passed away on December 21, 2023. 
A commission I started in June also came to completion. I wove a pastoral stole in green. I enjoy making the custom stoles as it gives me time to methodically make and meditate as I weave. The stole is pictured on my Schacht Loom. 

​As a Christmas Present to my family I purchased paint by number paintings of our beloved dog Rico. He passed away this October. We were heart broken as his body was failing and his mind sharp. He is greatly missed. Pictured is my daughter Adeline's start on her picture she chose. 

2023 brings more commissioned stoles, blue and red which I will methodically weave. At St.Paul's where I teach art to Kindergarten- eighth grade and social studies to grades kindergarten-third grades I am planning a large collaborative weaving project. I have four of seven looms threaded for the school wide creation. I prepared warp in a rainbow of colors. 
As far as personal art endeavors, I will continue to stitch my art kerchiefs and I have a quiet murmur of a large color project brewing. It has been nice to coast a bit as teaching second grade in the 2021-22 school year along side art was quite the feat. It was a very successful year but not sustainable, I did suffer some burn out. I am thankful for that amazing opportunity to teach in a classroom. I learned so much management wise and formed amazing relationships with those students. I still have them for social studies and art and really enjoy our time together. I have been been embracing the artwork created in my art room and fully recognize the production of my students is an extension of myself. I enjoy sharing my gift of visual art, skill, history, culture, and knowledge. Truly blessed to love what I do. 

​Fiber artist and arts educator, Susan Buss particularly enjoys assisting others to discover and develop their own unique creative voice while continuing to express her own. Susan incorporates traditional needlework techniques, screen printing, dyeing, and weaving in contemporary, conceptual, and unexpected ways. By using these methods of fiber arts and crafts that historically were considered “women’s work” in new and non-traditional ways, she gives them personal and intimate value that commands respect. 
Susan’s artwork includes salvaged and reclaimed woolens and linens, other natural and synthetic fibers, and hand-dyed yarns to use with weaving techniques or other fiber art and sculptural processes. She uses language, visual and verbal, to express her often tongue-in-cheek humor. Susan has also created loom woven wall hangings that express her gifted use of color. In the midst of a series of works based on the meditation of recovery, using embroidery and weaving, she is exploring a conversation based in raw emotion and healing. Susan is often found conflicted with many ideals of contradiction which often offers fertile ground for her creativity. 
Susan was born in Beloit, Wisconsin and was raised on a rural dairy farm. She studied fine art at the University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee and earned a degree in Fine Arts Fibers. She visits the farmstead, no longer an operating dairy farm, and photo documents the transitions of time. She creates woven landscapes inspired by Wisconsin’s unique and diverse terrain. 
She aspires to inspire her students to express this creative energy balance as well. She uses traditional sewing, weaving, basketry, book making techniques that can be both practical skills in life as well as a means to artistic expression. Susan has a desire to balance her solo studio time working on her artwork with her family and her time mentoring and sharing her skills with her students. Susan has taught children and adults and one of the most important skills in teaching is her unlimited patience. She has created a peaceful respite for her students, giving them the opportunity to follow their own interests as she guides them through the creative process, where every mistake is looked upon as either a good learning opportunity or a chance to develop creative problem solving skills. She has taught weaving, color theory, and shared fiber arts in adult enrichment courses.   
Buss currently lives in Menomonie, WI. She teaches Art to all grade levels (K-8) at St Paul’s School in Menomonie. In May 2021, Susan graduated with a second degree in Art Education for UW- Stout. Currently Susan is completing a course of religious studies for synodical certification. She gladly takes commissions and is currently weaving custom vestments. You can find her on Instagram or on her website www.onewhoweaves.com.

Commissioned table runner. Client has a white stone tabletop. Finished runner eight and a half feet plus fringe. 

Group Fiber Art Exhibit. 
Fallen 2019-2022
Cotton Embroidery thread, handkerchief, hand dyed cotton

​Since the community art piece created in August, Redemption was conceived. In August students of St Paul's, parents, congregation members, and the Menomonie community wove fabric strips on the yarn strung from poles in the school parking lot. Once the work was removed I reclaimed the fabric into a woven piece. I titled it Redemption, as the fabric was saved and redeemed. This piece is now hung in my 2nd grade classroom as a reminder of my passion for meaningful relationships and inclusiveness.