Crafts Council Collections Online
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Maker
Sue Rangeley
b. 16/12/1948, Rugby
Brief biography
Sue Rangeley specializes in beautiful, crafted embroideries for contemporary dress, one-off accessories and textile art. An artistic career shaped by fine art studies in the late 1960s, a love of painting and drawing continue to infuse Rangeley’s embroidery, with delicate, romantic painted silks, accented with applique details.
Sue Rangeley was an Art & Design teacher at Highdown School, Berkshire (1971-74) before setting up a studio in Fosseway House Workshops, Gloucestershire in 1975. From here Rangeley produced embroidered textiles for the Scottish fashion designer Bill Gibb, the Crafts Council shop at the V&A Museum, exhibitions in the UK and abroad, also featuring in a BBC series 'Embroidery'. In 1980 Rangeley established a new studio in Oxfordshire.
From the 1970s through to the present day, Sue Rangeley has had a prolific career, with international exhibitions and lecturing in USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Japan bringing her wider recognition. Rangeley’s work is held in collections internationally, including The Crafts Council, The Victoria & Albert Museum, The Embroiderers' Guild, The Cheltenham Museum & Art Gallery, The Shipley Museum in Gateshead, Gawthorpe Hall in Lancashire and The National Gallery of Victoria (Australia).
Education
1966 – 67 Loughborough College of Art and Design
1967 – 70 Lanchester Polytechnic. D.A.D Fine Art
1970 – 71 Brighton Polytechnic. A.T.D.
Exhibitions
1980 - 1990
'British Crafts' Florida, USA; 'Fashion as Art' Boston, USA
'Art Textiles', Scottsdale, Arizona, USA
'Quilting, Patchwork & Appliqué' Crafts Council Touring, UK
'Stitched Textiles for Interiors', R.I.B.A. London, UK
'Hatches, Matches, Dispatches', National Gallery of Victoria, Australia
'The Embroiderers' Garden' touring exhibition, UK
Chelsea Craft Fairs, Crafts Council, London, UK
1990 - 2000
Group exhibition of Contemporary Embroidery, Osaka & Tokyo, Japan
'An Eye for Detail' Broughton Castle, Oxfordshire, UK
Solo show of Embroidered Textiles, Tokyo, Japan
Festival of Embroidery at Yarlington House, Somerset, UK
'The Embroiderers Garden', Tokyo, Japan
'Embroidery in Kelmscott', Community Project, UK
'Crafts Showcase' Abingdon Museum, UK
2000 - 2010
'The Spirit of the Place', organized by Miranda Gunn & National Trust, UK
‘Sue Rangeley & Verina Warren’, Newington House Gallery, Oxfordshire, UK
'Inspired to Stitch-21 Textile Artists', curated by Diana Springall, UK
'An Embroiderer's Eye' - The Diana Springall Collection, Macclesfield Silk Museum, UK
'A Wearable Art', The Oxfordshire Museum, Woodstock, UK
‘Botanical Paintings & Textile Art', Oxfordshire Art Weeks, UK
2010 – 2025
'Fashioned with Stitch' - Solo exhibition at Macclesfield Silk Museum, UK
Compton Verney Textile Fair (2015-19)
Artists’ Open House at the Victoria & Albert Museum, UK
Silk Purse Gallery, Vancouver, Canada
‘Stitching the Decades 1974 -2024’, retrospective at Court Barn Museum, UK
Sue Rangeley was an Art & Design teacher at Highdown School, Berkshire (1971-74) before setting up a studio in Fosseway House Workshops, Gloucestershire in 1975. From here Rangeley produced embroidered textiles for the Scottish fashion designer Bill Gibb, the Crafts Council shop at the V&A Museum, exhibitions in the UK and abroad, also featuring in a BBC series 'Embroidery'. In 1980 Rangeley established a new studio in Oxfordshire.
From the 1970s through to the present day, Sue Rangeley has had a prolific career, with international exhibitions and lecturing in USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Japan bringing her wider recognition. Rangeley’s work is held in collections internationally, including The Crafts Council, The Victoria & Albert Museum, The Embroiderers' Guild, The Cheltenham Museum & Art Gallery, The Shipley Museum in Gateshead, Gawthorpe Hall in Lancashire and The National Gallery of Victoria (Australia).
Education
1966 – 67 Loughborough College of Art and Design
1967 – 70 Lanchester Polytechnic. D.A.D Fine Art
1970 – 71 Brighton Polytechnic. A.T.D.
Exhibitions
1980 - 1990
'British Crafts' Florida, USA; 'Fashion as Art' Boston, USA
'Art Textiles', Scottsdale, Arizona, USA
'Quilting, Patchwork & Appliqué' Crafts Council Touring, UK
'Stitched Textiles for Interiors', R.I.B.A. London, UK
'Hatches, Matches, Dispatches', National Gallery of Victoria, Australia
'The Embroiderers' Garden' touring exhibition, UK
Chelsea Craft Fairs, Crafts Council, London, UK
1990 - 2000
Group exhibition of Contemporary Embroidery, Osaka & Tokyo, Japan
'An Eye for Detail' Broughton Castle, Oxfordshire, UK
Solo show of Embroidered Textiles, Tokyo, Japan
Festival of Embroidery at Yarlington House, Somerset, UK
'The Embroiderers Garden', Tokyo, Japan
'Embroidery in Kelmscott', Community Project, UK
'Crafts Showcase' Abingdon Museum, UK
2000 - 2010
'The Spirit of the Place', organized by Miranda Gunn & National Trust, UK
‘Sue Rangeley & Verina Warren’, Newington House Gallery, Oxfordshire, UK
'Inspired to Stitch-21 Textile Artists', curated by Diana Springall, UK
'An Embroiderer's Eye' - The Diana Springall Collection, Macclesfield Silk Museum, UK
'A Wearable Art', The Oxfordshire Museum, Woodstock, UK
‘Botanical Paintings & Textile Art', Oxfordshire Art Weeks, UK
2010 – 2025
'Fashioned with Stitch' - Solo exhibition at Macclesfield Silk Museum, UK
Compton Verney Textile Fair (2015-19)
Artists’ Open House at the Victoria & Albert Museum, UK
Silk Purse Gallery, Vancouver, Canada
‘Stitching the Decades 1974 -2024’, retrospective at Court Barn Museum, UK
