I am a textile artist and I primarily utilize the centuries-old fabric dyeing technique of batik, using dyes and wax resist to create wall art, clothing, home décor, and greeting cards. Although I first tried batik many years ago as a teenage art student, I was drawn back to it in 1997 when I found the batik I created back in high school, a patterned skirt, folded away in a corner of the basement. Thinking it would be fun to try it again, I began to batik, and I haven’t stopped since. I love the planning part, which is like solving a puzzle. I love the tactile part of it – feeling the cloth, smooth when it is new, then rough when loaded with layers of wax, smooth and shiny and stiff when I iron off the wax, then silky and supple again when I get the last remaining wax out. I love swooshing the cloth in the dye bath, watching the color develop, and then hanging my batiks up to dry. On a warm spring day, my backyard is enlivened by my colorful clothesline.

Because I enjoy scrapbooking, my playing with paper evolved into making cards, and of course I had to incorporate my batik into that!
I make greeting cards from photos of my batiks, sometimes bits of those photos crafted into a collage. Each card is hand crafted, creatively matted and embellished.

I welcome custom orders. I recently batiked two silk wall hangings for a client's enclosed porch, working closely with her on color and design.

I have exhibited and sold my work throughout the New Jersey/New York metropolitan area. My cards are currently for sale at Stoopher and Boots, located on the Upper West Side in New York City. I have a SusanItkinBatik shop on Etsy.

Although mostly self-taught, I studied batik at the New School for Social Research in New York. I minored in Fine Arts at Syracuse University, where I obtained a B.S. in Communications.