Susan Kruger has lived in Covelo her whole life. She was introduced to soapstone at an early age and recalls taking walks with her father along the creek beds when she was very young- searching for those soft, smooth little rocks "that you can write with like chalk on other rocks."

Susan was eight years old when she carved her first soapstone beads- and she quickly became fascinated and inspired by the whole process of working with soapstone- from taking long walks to find the stone-( usually in the creek beds around Covelo)- to learning about the different consistencies-(some stones are dense and carvable and some just crumble.)- to discovering the vast variety of color not to mention the uniqueness of every stone's size and shape. Susan explains, "You can tell when it's a 'good one' by it's hardness and clarity... once you lick it or put water on it." She goes on to say that some stones you find already naturally have characteristics of a bird's head or a fish or a seal, etc..., and it makes it fun to enhance that natural shape into the final form. Other stones are simply round, offering the carver to define it into any shape his or her imagination delights in.

After her early discovery of soapstone as an art form, Susan began honing her skills-learning polishing and carving techniques- finding which tools work best for different effects, from nail files to sand paper to pocket knives to small hand drills. She first studied the art of carving out beads and then went on to learning about carving freestanding sculptures. She has worked with bone, ivory, wood, and alabaster, and prefers her beloved soapstone over them all. Most of her freestanding carvings take on the shapes of fish, frogs, turtles, boats and faces.

Susan has been influenced by African masks and designs of the Masai and the art of the Northwest Coast Native American Indians. She is interested and inspired by "form" over "texture" and "color". She enjoys making jewelry the most, and has learned that necklaces beaded on leather string and earrings are the only jewelry designs that can really take "wear and tear."