BiographySue grew up in the small town of Carlinville, Illinois, population 5,500, and did all the things small town girls do. She took part in Girls Athletic Association, Spanish Club, the marching band (oboe players carried the flag), and of course, Girl Scouts. As a young girl, she bought the Jack Nagy Learn to Draw kit, and discovered she didn’t have much talent as a drawer, but didn’t give up. Her high school art teacher, Mrs. Dufner, encouraged her to pursue art, as did her parents. She received a high score on the ACT test, and won the honor of being an Illinois State Scholar, which enabled her to attend college. She spent her freshman year at Illinois State University, Carbondale, and for the first time in her life, met people from big cities like Chicago, and all over the world. It was an eye-opening experience, and she relished the idea of traveling the country and the world. Sue transferred to the small college of Blackburn College, back in her hometown, and majored in pottery and printmaking. For her last senior semester she was on independent study and designed her own course. She talked to a local surveyor who gave her a map of Macoupin County, and told her how deep the creeks were. She dug native soils from numerous areas and plotted the depth of the clay she dug. She then turned those clays into slips and tested which ones were suitable as glazes. And to this day, she still has two pots that she glazed with those slips. For graduation, she was required to have an independent show of all her works, and a boy whom she used to babysit bought one of her oil paintings. Again, small town life. After she graduated, she married, had two sons, and went on to receive her MBA in accounting and statistics from Roosevelt University in Chicago, where they were living. They moved frequently and lived in Chicago (3 different houses), Portland Oregon (twice), Concord, CA, and Chester, New Jersey, finally landing in Arizona, where she currently lives. She successfully started her own forensic accounting company. During this time she was still involved in art, learning how to spin and dye wool, toll painting, frame loom weaving, and fused glass. Upon early retirement, she started taking pottery classes again and remembered why she loved art in the first place. She went from cone 5 oxidation to cone 10 reduction. Then the magic happened. She took a naked raku workshop, where she met her future husband, Wally Asselberghs of Belgium. After marriage, she was first his assistant, and then his co-teacher. They have their own studio in the back garden of their house, and host small workshops there as well. They have taught workshops together all over the US, Europe, and Canada. The high points were teaching at the International Ceramic Studio in Hungary, Vallauris Institute of Arts in France, La Meridiana International School of Ceramics in Tuscany, and an exhibition and workshop during NCECA in Seattle. Her work is shown in several galleries. While still involved in naked raku, saggar, and wood firing, she is currently mostly working making animals in cone 5, maybe because she has two dogs and two cats, all rescues, reflecting her love of animals.