Tribute to Susan Wraight
Last month, we were incredibly saddened to hear of the passing of carving artists Susan Wraight. Some years ago, we invited Susan to give a talk to our VWA members.
David Hall recalls this from the day: “She was a remarkable craftsperson and while much of what she would have spoken about has faded from my memory, I do clearly recall two things. The first was a sense of unsettling conflict between my eyes and my brain. The brain was telling me that this object was wood, and my eyes could not believe that such tiny and perfect detail could be executed in wood! The other thing was her explanation of how to create a dimpled surface on for example the skin of a frog. With a punch she would hit down into the surface creating small indents, sand back until the indents disappeared and then wet the surface causing the compressed fibres in the indents to swell back to normal and project above the surface. It is presumably a centuries old technique used by the Japanese masters of Netsuke but amazing stuff”
“Sue was an internationally acclaimed Netsuke Carver who competed with and often defeated the finest Craftspeople of Japan”, Hamish Hill.
Andrew Potocnik also wrote for us this wonderful tribute about Susan:
“These are personal recollections of Sue that I have drawn together from memories that span over forty years since I first met her. Although we weren’t ‘buddies’, we were friends who could call each other when the need arose, but that’s the type of person Sue was. You could get in touch any time and it was as if you had only spoken last week. Sue was a humble, down-to-earth person who never hinted her standing, not just in our woodworking community, but on the world stage, where she was a luminary.
I first met Sue way back in 1984 or 1985 when I was a student at what was then known as the Melbourne College of Advanced Education, and she was a fledgling Aussie, fresh from the UK. She was part of the team that taught second, third and fourth year students, where she inspired everyone with her ‘bubbly’ personality. Her accent and distinct hairstyle made her immediately recognisable and very easy to get along with, especially as she recalled projects she had been drawn into working on.
Always impeccably dressed, Sue was happy to share her personal life, as it influenced her work and development as a maker of objects of extraordinary beauty. Few would know that she worked on restorative carvings of Winchester Cathedral in the UK, searching the UK to find suitable pieces of English Oak with which to create replacement misericords, only to find that her best option was available here in Melbourne.
Sue spent extended time living on a Scottish island carving pieces for a client who owned a castle. She also carved the original moulds that were used by a prominent Melbourne jeweller to make numerous tiny silver casts of Australian native animals. Her reach was immense and it was part of the narrative of her life.
I don’t know how Sue came to know Ray Stebbins, another teacher of Gold and Silversmithing working in the training of teachers, who incidentally interviewed me when I applied for MCAE. Anyway, Sue recalled to us, her students, how when on a country outing for a picnic somewhere in the Dandenongs (I think) meeting Ray’s family for the first (I think) time, she spotted a snake that had been run over on the road. She insisted that it be taken home for her to study in depth for a netsuke, so it was placed in the Esky, at the expense of the picnic lunch which ended up being soggy for the family meeting.
Sue’s pieces are owned by some of the most prestigious institutions in the world, including several museums in Japan, and as far as I know, at least one former President of the USA and the Emperor of Japan. Quite an honour for an English lady working in a style steeped in tradition and dominated by Japanese men. And to add icing to the cake, Sue was at one stage voted the world’s best Netsuke carver by her peers!
Several years ago, whilst in Japan, I visited the Kyoto Seishu Netsuke Art Museum in Kyoto, just to see Sue’s works, with pride in my heart, knowing that Sue was a friend of mine. These were early pieces and nothing close to the best works she created later in life, but they were already considered worthy of being displayed alongside the best in Japan.
Sue’s eye for detail and skill developed not just in the composition of her pieces, but the narrative that came with the story that the carving captured. Some may remember the presentation she made for the VWA several years ago, in which she related a thread in her pieces to the story of Alice in wonderland. Sue’s work continued to be regarded as the best of the best, not just in the country where Netsuke originated, and its cultural role was recognised, but on the world stage as a form of representational carving in its own right.
About ten years ago Sue contacted me to ask whether I’d be interested in the doors of her and Ray’s kitchen cabinets which were being remodelled. She knew that the wood was difficult to find these days, so she wanted it to be put to good use. I cannot say ‘no’ to good, free wood, so I was there before you can imagine.
Loading the doors into my car, Ray in his dry style looked at Sue and said, the wood from these doors will still be in use when our new doors are falling apart (meaning that the new doors would be of manmade material). Anyway, I was going through a phase of making small jointed jewellery-type boxes, and made one from Sue and Ray’s wood. Once completed, I packaged it up and posted it to Sue. A few days later I received a phone call from her, bursting with excitement, telling me that she was to celebrate a significant birthday in the next week and that this was a perfect gift!
Recently I returned to a project that has been on the back burner for a few too many years, and in searching for suitable material, I settled on Sue and Ray’s Queensland Walnut, which I use very judiciously.
Once the project was finished, a small four-sided box made of turned segments, capped with a lid featuring a springy finial, I made a short video and sent it to Sue. She replied and told me how much she liked it and that Ray would have loved it if he was still alive. This was when I first learned of Ray’s passing, and thought of giving the piece to Sue as a memory of her time with Ray.
To my horror I learned of Sue’s passing… She was a person who I’m lost for words to describe…
Fortunately, I still have several doors from Sue and Ray’s kitchen cabinets, which I already used with the respect I have for precious wood and Sue’s gifting, but now those doors will remind me of Sue every time I see them. And they are now even more precious than ever before.”
If you’d like to read more about Susan, you can find this wonderful article by Susan on the Australian Wood Review: https://www.woodreview.com.au/how-to/susan-wraight-through-the-looking-glass and a tribute by Alistair Boell https://www.woodreview.com.au/profiles/a-tribute-to-susan-wraight
Photo Credits: Images were supplied to the Australian Wood Review for the article by Sue (Through the Looking Glass) – originally published in AWR issue 2 – see link above. Vic Wood Huon Pine Carved box by Linda Nathan.