Here’s a sampling of the press Susan has gotten for her work.
Susan Rioff – Urban planner turned wood craftswoman
By Peg Lopata/fiftyplus advocate | Dec 31, 2020
Photo by Weigl Photography
Cambridge – Life takes us all kinds of surprising places. Who could’ve predicted that Susan Rioff, 74, once an urban planner would come to be a wood craftswoman making rustic furniture? Though a long-time city dweller, a walk in the woods is one of her favorite ways to relax.
Like many who come to Cambridge to go to college, Rioff, a native of Baltimore, Maryland, stayed put. Her first job was in the planning and development office for the city of Cambridge. She lived here from 1968 to 1989 and then again from 2014 to now.
“I couldn’t stay away,” admitted Rioff, mother of three adult children ages 42, 40 and 29. Rioff considers those children her greatest accomplishment.
“I gave birth to three babies who grew up healthy and kind,” she said.
Besides being a mother, Rioff worked in a variety of fields including urban planning: affordable housing, day care administration and infant day care, including volunteering in a neonatal intensive care unit. She retired from her professional career in 2013.
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Lexington artist creates furniture from recycled wood
By Samantha Allen/Wicked Local Lexington
Trudging through the front yard past long elegant and fallen limbs leaning upright against a massive tree, landscaper John Menard came to deliver an apology.
“I’m sorry, Susan,” he said to Lexington artist Susan Rioff. “I had to take that stump out of the neighbors’ yard.”
Menard is instrumental in supplying materials for Rioff’s rustic furniture pieces, which are made entirely of natural elements like fallen branches and recycled wood scraps.
“John cleans up a lot of mess, and sometimes he calls me up and says, ‘Need any wood?” she said with a laugh.
In the wake of Tropical Storm Irene, Menard and his employees have given Rioff plenty to work with during their weekly visit to her Oakland Avenue home.
“She really loves it and she finds [pieces] everywhere,” said Menard of Burlington. “I run into something small that she needs, like the white birch. When she first started, that was all she did.”
Rioff’s grand Victorian home is filled with her sylvan creations, which she calls “Rustica.” The basement windowsills have miniature chairs made from twigs and tree bark. Her cat Callie climbs up twisted and knotted fixtures kept on the back porch.
“You don’t know what it’s going to be,” said Rioff, who has been building furniture for the past seven years. “I just like playing. This may be true for all artists.”
She said she “caught the bug” after attending a weekend seminar on how to build a garden trellis. From there, she branched out to stools and benches.
Rioff collects all her materials from the area, with Menard’s help. One of her favorite activities is hunting for discarded pieces of wood on trash day, including slabs from home demolition projects and the old backboards of bed frames.
“Every piece of wood tells a story,” she said, pointing to a piece with holes created by bees. “I even found one with beaver damage. You would never think of that.”
Rioff said she embraces the flaws in the wood.
“This way you know there’s nothing else like it,” she said.
Paying it forward
On Saturday, Sept. 10, Rioff will join other artisans from around New England at the 29th annual Fine Arts and Crafts Festival at the Codman Estate in Lincoln. In her driveway sit tens of stools she is hoping to sell at the festival, including a stunning white birch piece with cut branches nailed together at different angles.
All the proceeds from her furniture sales will be donated to the Boston Minstrel Company, which performs music at homeless shelters, prisons and other venues in the Greater Boston area.
“Everyone shows up and we take requests. We’re sort of a rock-and-roll group,” said Rioff, who has been a member of the volunteer singing troupe for more than 10 years. “By the end, everyone is singing and dancing and holding hands, [even] with us.”
Rioff said she doesn’t need the money and is thrilled to see the profits go to a charitable organization.
“If I can make a couple hundred dollars, if I’m lucky, I can send it to the Minstrels and that’s money for them to do what they do,” she said. “And my net cost for this is nothing. I just find things in the woods.”
Contact Susan Rioff at sgr9999@gmail.com for appointments to view her work.
Copyright Lexington Minuteman. Some rights reserved
Lexington crafts sale raises money for anti-hunger charities
By Hannah McGoldrick/Wicked Local Lexington
Excerpt from article:
Lexington artisan Susan Grose Rioff has been donating her handmade rustic furniture to Crafts for Charity because she believes it is important to give back.
“I’m fortunate enough not to have to keep the money for myself,” Rioff said. “It’s nice to know people are interested and people benefit from it.”
Rioff typically donates her proceeds to the Boston Minstrel Company, a singing group that visits Boston-area homeless shelters and prisons, but Palant convinced her to donate through Crafts for Charity.
“It’s rewarding personally for me to make them and it’s rewarding also for groups to benefit from it,” she said. “I think Dr. Palant is pretty much a genius for pulling this off.”