Suzie Hackney is a Creative Category Lead for Gifts at Lush, where she has worked since 2008 and led the category since 2013. Her work spans creative direction, product innovation, art direction and storytelling across Lush’s gift and book ranges.
Alongside her career at Lush, Suzie is a multidisciplinary artist who recently completed an MA in Fine Art at City & Guilds of London Art School. Her practice explores humour, play and emotional storytelling through ceramics, objects and installation, drawing on personal experiences, relationships and the everyday.
Explore more of Suzie’s creative practice, artwork and projects at suziehackney.com
28/09/2026, 20:00 - Finbarre:
Welcome to Tarot DMs with Finbarre, where I use tarot cards to inspire conversations with interesting people. Today’s guest is Suzie Hackney, creative direction and category lead for Gifts at Lush.
Suzie spent years thinking about what makes a gift more than something just wrapped up in a box. How design can reduce waste, how artists behind an object can be part of its story, and how something as familiar as gift packaging can be made more inclusive. The work at Lush has included the company’s reusable knot wraps, collaborations with artists and organisations including Arthouse Unlimited, and most recently, The Lush Guide to Knot Wrap, exploring the journey from the Japanese tradition of Furoshiki, I hope I got that right, to contemporary sustainable design. But today, Suzie has no idea what I’m going to ask her, and neither do I.
But let’s find out. I’ve got my three cards here. Suzie, welcome to Tarot DMs.
28/09/2026, 20:02 - Suzie Hackney:
Hi, Finbarre. Great to speak to you. I’ve been looking forward to doing this. I’m very intrigued to see what’s going to come up as well.
28/09/2026, 20:03 - Finbarre:
Suzie, you mentioned before that you have a deck of tarot cards, which is always something I like to hear. Could you talk me through your relationship with the cards and how you became introduced to each other?
28/09/2026, 20:06 - Suzie Hackney:
So I don’t remember exactly when I got into tarot, but I remember getting into runes and started to cast runes and read them when I was around 18. And I went into an esoteric bookshop when I was at university in Winchester and I started to use them then.
And I think tarot was pretty much around the same time. And I use tarot very regularly, probably reading, having readings for myself at least once a week. And then also occasionally going to see an astrologer as well to get readings.
28/09/2026, 20:08 - Suzie Hackney:
Just to say as well that I only ever really use one deck. I do have a couple, but I get quite attached to objects. And these, I’ve had these for a minute. These are probably ones I’ve had for the longest.
These are the Aquarian Tarot, the Art Deco inspired imagery. And I use these mostly, basically. They’re the kind of go-to items.
28/09/2026, 20:09 - Finbarre:
You know, it’s funny you should mention runes, but just yesterday on eBay, I saw a set by somebody called Ralph Blum. And you could get this burgundy pouch, this lovely velvet container to keep the runes in, plus a guidebook. And it came out in about 1987. And it was my first ever set of runes.
Now, my mum once upon a time possessed this. I borrowed it long term. Long term as in it never went back. And my bag of runes disappeared as well. So I saw this on eBay and I thought I must have.
And yeah, there is something about runes where you can just be on the beach and you could just make yourself a set of 25, use them and then just leave them for the water. There’s something wonderfully sort of elemental and primal about runes.
28/09/2026, 20:10 - Finbarre:
Again, this is uncanny because at the moment I’m on the search for an original Aquarian Tarot deck. I think they came out in the 70s and I would love to own a set of those. I mean, you can get them now. I think they’re about £70, £80 for a decent set. So you’re doing right to hang on to those.
I’ll be asking you to draw one a little bit later. But in the meantime, we will be using a guest deck, which is the Bad Witch Tarot by Michelle Lodge. These ones have a bit of a saucy burlesque flavour. They’re very fun.
And your first card will be the anchor card, which is the one that everyone this month will have received. So we’re starting from rock bottom. We’re starting with the Tower.
28/09/2026, 20:11 - Suzie Hackney:
Yeah, it’s funny you should say that because I have exactly the same set, the ones from Ralph Blum. And my nan actually got them for me for my 18th birthday. So I feel like they’re part of my ancestry now.
And I also have made sets before as well, gathering pebbles on the beach. So I’m totally with you. They’ve got that real sort of primal feel about them.
28/09/2026, 20:12 - TOWER TIME ⚡
28/09/2026, 20:13 - Finbarre:
How does this interpretation of the Tower weigh up against the ones you’re more familiar with?
28/09/2026, 20:14 - Suzie Hackney:
These are cool. They kind of remind me a bit of, I just watched the new Beetlejuice film again the other day. So they’ve got that sort of Tim Burton silhouette-esque kind of things going on and also maybe a bit of Rocky Horror Show as well. Yeah, really fun.
28/09/2026, 20:17 - Finbarre:
Suzie, as it happens, you’ve just mentioned two of my very favourite films. And it just so happens I have the Rocky Horror tarot deck to reveal to the world. And hopefully the guests will be open-minded enough to appreciate that. It’ll also be a nice way of remembering one of my favourite actors that passed recently.
So let’s think of a Tower question for you. Tell me about a creative project that has gone wrong in the best of ways.
28/09/2026, 20:21 - Suzie Hackney: Just thinking on this one...
28/09/2026, 20:22 - Finbarre: Take your time. The Tower never demands easy answers.
28/09/2026, 20:22 - Suzie Hackney:
This one’s tricky because I think all creative projects go wrong in some way or another. And it is kind of a process of then the thing going wrong and then working through it, correcting it in a way.
28/09/2026, 20:24 - Suzie Hackney:
Like there’s one that I can remember at university when I was in a friend of mine’s final piece and he sort of picked me because I had a sort of improvisation style. I could learn moves, to the dance degree. I could learn moves, but I had a sort of improvisation, a way of improvising that he liked. I’ve still got the card that he gave me at the end and saying something like, you know “All the mistakes that you’ve made actually made the piece.”
So I think sometimes the imperfection of things works out better in the end.
28/09/2026, 20:26 - Suzie Hackney:
And then I think with current projects at the moment, with a work project, for example, when something doesn’t quite work out or when a design doesn’t quite work out how you’d like it to, there’s that process of reimagining and rethinking something that creates more clarity in the process. Even though a quick win is sometimes quite helpful, actually, we learn more when we have to go back and relook at something and think, actually, how can we make that better? Or how do we want that to really come across? So I quite like that process, even though sometimes it can be a bit painful. It’s actually quite helpful.
28/09/2026, 20:28 - Finbarre:
As you were speaking, I was looking at this variation of the Tower card, and it occurred to me that this person isn’t seeing the lightning strike behind them, but they can hear it. And you mentioned about the dancing.
So as a quick follow-up, I’d love to know what music to you is like sonic catnip. What is it that you hear that you can’t resist but move to?
28/09/2026, 20:31 - Suzie Hackney:
So that’s quite easy. That’s definitely drum and bass and jungle. I was quite obsessed with it when I was about 16, 17. And yeah, went to a lot of clubs at uni that played that as well. And every time I hear it now, I just go straight back to those days, basically.
28/09/2026, 20:32 - Suzie Hackney:
So like more specifically, there’s an artist at the moment, Nia Archives. And yeah, whenever I hear her music, that’s definitely the catnip for me right now. I absolutely love her.
28/09/2026, 20:34 - Finbarre:
I’ll be taking a listen to that and I’ll make sure that my kids don’t catch me desk dancing. We’re up to card number two.
This is the Wild card. This could be anything at all. I’ve got your deck of cards here and shuffling it as we speak. So there are two cards we can’t draw here. Those would be the anchor card and the gift card that was given to you.
But otherwise, it could be anything. We could go from the Tower to something even worse, maybe. Although the odds are in your favour.
Say stop when you’re ready. We’ll see what it is.
28/09/2026, 20:34 - Suzie Hackney:
Stop!
28/09/2026, 20:36 - Finbarre: No-one ever goes “Yay! Swords!” but here we are…
28/09/2026, 20:38 - Finbarre:
I’m finding this one very curious as there’s a natural path of progression from this card to the Gift card that you were given. This is a card of recovery and contemplation. It’s a retreat, often a spiritual retreat, but it can also be a card of returning to something too soon.
It could be a card of restlessness.
28/09/2026, 20:39 - Finbarre:
I think if we’re looking at runes, this would be a combination of the one that looks a bit like an “I”, which is the ice rune. I’ve never really mastered the Nordic pronunciation of the stones, but the other one that this would be a combination of would be the rune of protection.
28/09/2026, 20:40 - Finbarre:
This card would like to ask about your best ideas. Are they when you’re working or when you’ve stopped?
28/09/2026, 20:41 - Suzie Hackney:
This is a very interesting card to come up. And it’s, yeah, the timing is quite good. I mean, I am moving house and at the same time trying to find balance for my art, in my creative art practice after finishing my master’s last year. So I’ve got, there’s quite a lot going on and I’m trying to kind of juggle probably too many things and have too many expectations of what I can manage at the same time. As well as obviously with all of the work that I’m doing with Lush as well.
So there’s quite a lot, there’s quite a lot that’s going on right now. So this is quite an interesting one.
28/09/2026, 20:45 - Suzie Hackney:
Saying that as well, though, it’s an exciting time because I am excited about putting a lot of that creativity into my house. And having that sort of vessel for this other form of creativity.
So I think it’s sort of not narrowing that down to being in a certain place at a certain time and actually having this art-filled life is kind of my aspiration, essentially, how I want to live. So I’m kind of moving towards that.
28/09/2026, 20:46 - Suzie Hackney:
In terms of best ideas it’s never when I’m sitting at a desk looking at a computer it’s always right before I go to sleep. I’m one of those people who has to have a notepad right by their bed just in case you think of something and you worry you’re not going to remember it when you wake up and… has like lists and lists and lists of things on their phone for when like I’m out walking I try and walk mostly every day and not have something that I’m listening. To just allow myself the space to kind of look at things and allow myself just to think.
28/09/2026, 20:46 - Suzie Hackney:
Sometimes actually not even to think, just to allow space. I think that’s when best ideas can come in, when I allow myself that sort of headspace.
28/09/2026, 20:49 - Finbarre:
I’m absolutely with you on that last point. I work in IT myself and being surrounded by screens and technology and distractions and all the wonderful ways that you can not allow yourself to be in your own head. It’s incredible how refreshing and revitalizing it can be when you don’t have that low level stimulation of a screen or headphones or you’re just there with your thoughts and your own movement.
Right, we’ve got card number three, the gift card. This is a present from Elizabeth Sulis Kim, who was the writer of The Book of Beasts. And you’ll see why this card connects to the last one.
28/09/2026, 20:49 - Finbarre:
28/09/2026, 20:50 - Finbarre: Reminds me, I need to ask my mother-in-law VERY nicely to make me a winter cloak
28/09/2026, 20:52 - Suzie Hackney:
Yeah, this definitely links. I can see the progression here. And I’ve been feeling that I need to probably hibernate a little bit, actually. So yeah, this has come up. This is sort of also maybe a little bit obvious in a way. It’s like, oh, yeah, of course, I need this to kind of, yeah, hide away and sort of hibernate for a little while, I suppose.
28/09/2026, 20:52 - Suzie Hackney:
And it is that season. I feel like me moving in autumn is perfect. You know, the timing couldn’t be better, really.
28/09/2026, 20:54 - Finbarre:
Perhaps perfectly timed with hot spiced mulled drinks and maybe some fruit crumbles as well.
A Hermit question would be something like creative direction. Okay. Creative direction is highly collaborative, working with your team.
And I’m guessing that creating art outside of work hours is intensely personal. What was the last great discovery you made when working alone?
28/09/2026, 21:00 - Suzie Hackney:
I think the greatest discovery that I found when working on my own is time. And let me expand.
28/09/2026, 21:01 - Finbarre: Makes sense given that the card is traditionally linked to Saturn
28/09/2026, 21:01 - Suzie Hackney:
The time aspect, I suppose, is that when I’m in the studio and I’m working on a project on my own, time has a different essence to it. Whereas with work, things have to be done in a certain time frame. You’re around different people who are working on different time frames and there’s all those different things kind of coming together.
28/09/2026, 21:02 - Suzie Hackney:
When I’m in the studio or I’m working on my own and my own practice, there’s a whole different relationship with time. I kind of get lost in that movement between the brain and the hands. And it’s a whole other different relationship with time.
28/09/2026, 21:05 - Suzie Hackney:
Because at the moment, for example, I’m working with clay a lot and it has this kind of ancestral, very historical feel around it. Because obviously it’s a material that we’ve been using and working with for hundreds of thousands of years.
28/09/2026, 21:06 - Suzie Hackney:
So there’s something very grounding about that, which is a big discovery for me at the moment. And I think that’s a wonderful balance between sort of some of the more technological aspects of my life or everyone’s lives, I suppose. But that’s why I’m really falling in love with that material at the moment.
28/09/2026, 21:08 - Finbarre:
Me and clay don’t know each other very well. My wife, however, was working with the scouts recently to create these clay faces that the kids were attaching to various trees to make them look like something from Lord of the Rings.
Thinking about clay historically, it’s been used in everything from, you know, cooking pots to, I imagine, little bits of jewelry to urns that you would hold the ashes of the dead in. What is it you’re creating with clay?
28/09/2026, 21:09 - Suzie Hackney:
Firstly, those masks sound amazing. I definitely would love to see them.
28/09/2026, 21:09 - Suzie Hackney:
So at the moment, I am making these kind of like vignettes, like telling these sort of stories. They’re almost like maquettes, I suppose, for larger pieces that I might make in the future.
28/09/2026, 21:09 - Suzie Hackney:
They’re all built around stories and storytelling about my life or things that I see when I’m out. So just creating these little funny scenes, basically.
28/09/2026, 21:10 - Finbarre: I found this and it’s frankly terrifying
28/09/2026, 21:10 - Finbarre:
28/09/2026, 21:11 - Suzie Hackney: If liking that is wrong I don’t want to be right
28/09/2026, 21:11 - Suzie Hackney:
I love, or are inspired mostly by, imperfection and people’s kind of wonkiness and messiness. That’s what intrigues me. So I guess that’s what I like to sort of tap into in my work.
28/09/2026, 21:11 - Finbarre: Do you have a snap of any of your projects, or are they Top Clay Secret so far?
28/09/2026, 21:12 - Suzie Hackney:
28/09/2026, 21:12 - Suzie Hackney: This is called ‘Bad Eggs in Rome’
28/09/2026, 21:13 - Suzie Hackney: When I got really bad food poisoning on holiday once
28/09/2026, 21:13 - Suzie Hackney: And was sick in front of loads of nuns
28/09/2026, 21:14 - Finbarre: MORTIFYING. Also, your poor tum.
28/09/2026, 21:14 - Finbarre: She doesn’t look too bothered to be fair.
28/09/2026, 21:15 - Suzie Hackney: Oh yeh it was not good No they had no idea
28/09/2026, 21:16 - Finbarre: I’m sure they’ve seen far worse at their convent parties. Suzie, I realise that this is the time to grab your deck and pass on the gift of one of your cards to the next guest.
28/09/2026, 21:16 - Finbarre: Could you give them a shuffle and take a snap?
28/09/2026, 21:17 - Suzie Hackney: Oh yeh...bet they get right on it 😅
28/09/2026, 21:17 - Suzie Hackney: Yes sure
28/09/2026, 21:18 - Suzie Hackney:
28/09/2026, 21:19 - Finbarre:
I have just been visited by my youngest, and they looked quizzically at the picture on my screen.
Come over.
Hi.
What’s your first impression of the figurines that you can see on the screen there?
So what the hell is happening?
Wait, wait, should I describe it?
You can describe. What’s he doing?
That’s an orange man. No, he’s not orange. He’s just wearing orange.
And is he dropping a carton of eggs?
No, it’s maybe a plastic bag.
And there’s a nun with a concerningly big hood.
I swear she’s a grim reaper. I just can’t prove it.
And she’s walking by praying to the god of plastic bags, obviously.
And there’s a logo that looks vaguely like an upside-down mushroom.
No, it’s pointing down.
It’s probably this way upside, and the reason it’s pointing down, is because he’s turned it upside-down.
But then why the hell have a handle like that?
The reason why is because that person’s being sick in the bag.
Oh.
Yeah.
So, anyway, that’s a reaction from a 10-year-old just there.
28/09/2026, 21:21 - Suzie Hackney:
I love that reaction. So good. So good. The nuns, the grim reaper. I mean, concerningly big hood, possibly. Yes. Lovely. Thank you very much. I loved the review. It was perfect.
28/09/2026, 21:23 - Finbarre:
From the mouths of babes, as they say, I’ve been astonished how cleanly the line runs through particular cards that you’ve got today, Suzie.
So going from the Tower to the Four of Swords, the time of required rest and sanctuary to the solitude and the thought of the Hermit to then passing on contemplation in your final card, the Six of Cups runs together beautifully.
One of the many reasons why I love drawing these cards.
28/09/2026, 21:23 - Suzie Hackney: The god of plastic bags! 😅
28/09/2026, 21:25 - Suzie Hackney:
I’ve loved it. I love, I love this. The way of working out life and connecting with something like, you know, other than and I just think it’s yeah, perfect. It was brilliant. Thank you so much for inviting me. What a special thing to be invited to.
28/09/2026, 21:27 - Suzie Hackney:
Yeah, I’ve had a lot of fun and it’s been wonderful to also have the insights from that art piece as well from your 10 year old. It was perfect. So thank you so much.
28/09/2026, 21:29 - Suzie Hackney: I haven’t had as good a crit as that since I left art college ❤️😂
28/09/2026, 21:30 - Finbarre:
Our absolute pleasure. It was lovely having you. Suzie Hackney, thank you so much for joining me on Tarot DMs.
Dear listener, dear reader, you can find out more about Suzie’s work through Lush, including its gift collections and knot wraps and the Lush Guide to Knot Wrap, which is available now. And you can also see more of Suzie’s personal work at suziehackney.com. The Tarot Interviews umbrella is an independent interview project created and presented by me, Finbarre Snarey.
And if you enjoyed this conversation, you can find more episodes at tarotdms.com.