BROOKINGS Embrace the simple beauty of nature to rejuvenate your spirit, relax your mind and nurture your soul. Those elements come to life in the jewelry of Susan Roskens, who will be returning for her fifth time to the Brookings Summer Arts Festival with her pressed-flower wearable works of art.
At last year’s BASF, she was honored with the Media Award. That means a sample of her artistry is being used and viewed in materials featuring the BSAF 2025 logo.
Roskens is a native Iowan, born in Fort Dodge. She graduated from high school in Minnesota and returned to the Hawkeye state, where she attended Iowa State University (Ames) and majored in biochemical engineering. In time she returned to Minnesota where she lived in Mankato before settling in Albert Lea where she now lives and works.
It sounds extremely impressive but did not work out for me, she explained of her pre-artistry STEM days. Continuing, she added, When I was a senior in high school, my guidance counselor approached me and told me I had some aptitude in science. Theres going to be a shortage of biochemical female engineers about the time you graduate.
Thats what I went on, Roskens said. I didnt have any idea; if Id have known I could major in art at that time I probably would have. But in my generation that just wasnt something you thought of as a way to make money. And still, I work another job. I dont think I was designed to live the life of the starving artist.
I stuck with that (working as a chemical engineer) for exactly one year and then I ended up switching over to business and particularly human resource management. In that field she was following in her fathers footsteps: I should have known all along thats where I was headed.
She worked at that profession for about 15 years, married and had two children at home. However, the artist was alive in her soul and she decided to act on that full-time.
For about five years I did a decent job of supporting family expenses with that, Roskens said. I was doing hand-painted clothing; theres a good market for that. I sold a lot.
Still working full-time
However, the world of commerce soon became and still is a part of her life.
When the kids got to a certain age I decided I was going to go back into the work force and ended up working in the mortgage industry as a mortgage broker, the artist explained. I still work kind of related to that; I work for a rural finance company specifically in their rural homes side of the business. I help people who are rural residents with things related to their loans or needing financing.
Now with her children grown and gone, her job is very manageable and allows her to work full-time from home and yet let her artistic talent shine: I just have a really blessed situation to be able to pursue my art and still keep my job and have my benefits. Im about five years from retirement.
I have a large garden and get to make stuff out of my flowers, and all of my buckets are filled because I get to do that. I only have to go into the office one day a week. I work on a team and its kind of cyclical. There are ups and downs to it. I may work a lot of hours one day and I may have another day when theres not a lot that I need to do. It gives me some flexibility.
Stained-glass windows
The flower arrangement that appears on the BSAF 2025 logo was inside a pendant that Roskens had created. She has three varieties of flowers that she has worked with over 30 years. She grows the flowers shes using in creating her wearable art: she picks each blossom by hand; presses and dries it; arranges it between two pieces of glass; and seals it with solder. In a way she is doing in miniature what she first did as a stained-glass artist. Lead-free solder gives her jewelry a little more rustic appeal.
In my first making money as an artist I was traveling with stained glass windows, which became a terrifying thing in outdoor events, Roskens explained. Its terrifying when the wind comes up and you have 3-by-5 foot stained-glass panels hanging on a display of some sort. I was really new in the business at that point and I had one of those little pop-up tents. Yeah, it was terrifying and I think I just decided that I really like the tiny delicate work.
The flowers and the small glass jewelry became everything, she noted. I liked it and it was much easier to travel with. And theres a sort of magic-in-miniature that becomes a conversation starter when visitors to her booth view her work.
Thats one of the most common things when people walk into my booth at an art fair theyll say, Somebody has patience or Where did you get such tiny flowers?
I do have the patience and I work with a tweezers and for me its almost meditative when Im surrounded by the different flowers I have to work with and I have my glass and Im arranging them. Im completely relaxed.
The heavy work of industrial stained glass and the lead doesnt really suit me as much as the tiny work does. It just felt too industrial to me. The work I do is centered on flowers and theyre such a central part of my life. Adorning yourself with nature is just a way to kind of rejuvenate your spirit and give you peace throughout the day. I do believe that. I do believe (my customers) are wearing a a piece of wearable art.
Roskens averages 13 shows a year and only outdoor festivals during the summer months in Minnesota, Iowa, South Dakota, Wisconsin, and Illinois.
Contact John Kubal at [email protected].
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