Bill Laurita

As President of Swans Island, Bill Laurita is involved in every aspect of the company -- from blanket design to keeping the looms running and managing the creative team of staff and artisans. Bill touches every part of the business and his enthusiasm for the company’s commitment to handcrafted excellence is contagious. It’s not surprising that a customer in the Swans Island showroom recently remarked, “Gee, you’re really excited about all of this stuff!”

Bill’s enthusiasm is part of a lifelong passion for craft. Since childhood, Bill has been enthralled by the plasticity of different mediums and the creative process. After a teaching and administrative career in both public and Waldorf schools, Bill moved to Swans Island, Maine, in order to learn hand weaving and natural dyeing. Having worked extensively with wood, steel and copper, Bill brings the full force of his creativity, fine craftsmanship, and experience to wool yarn and natural dyes. Most recently, Bill designed and developed Swans Island’s newly expanded natural dye house.

Bill has been married to his wife, Jody, for 32 years. Having renovated four homes, they now live in a craftsman cottage, nestled between the ocean and the mountains of Camden, Maine. They have two grown children and a granddaughter.

Susan Williams

Susan Williams, Partner and Creative Director of Swans Island, has an entrepreneurial spirit and a background in fine art – both of which are put to good use on a daily basis. Susan has been involved in building small, art-oriented businesses for a number of years. A native New Yorker, she attended the United Nations International School then went on to major in studio art and art history at Bowdoin College. Upon graduation, she moved to the Bay Area and quickly went to work building her first company, Rubars, a successful art supply business. But the East Coast called her home and she and her husband moved back to raise their family and so Susan could concentrate of painting and exhibiting her work in NYC and Maine.

Compelled by their fondness for the piney and rocky coast of Maine, in 2003 Susan, her husband Rufus and their two children moved to the coastal village of Rockport, Maine. By luck, and with much passion and admiration for the company, they became partners in Swans Island two years later. Susan is consistently inspired by Swans Island’s commitment to crafting exquisite handmade pieces, and she brings this inspiration to the creative process that goes into the company’s marketing materials. For Susan, the challenge is to communicate, honor and reflect the quality of craft practiced daily in Swans Island’s Northport studio.

Michele Orne

Michele Rose Orne, Partner and Knit Design Director for Swans Island, has been designing hand knits for over 25 years. She brings a rich combination of passion and experience to Swans Island’s line of all-natural, hand-dyed yarns and timeless patterns that are inspired by classic favorites and daily life along the coast of Maine.

After graduating from Yale University in 1985 with majors in fine arts and economics, Michele spent several years in the garment industry in New York designing knitwear for many major retailers.  She has also worked as a freelance designer in the handknitting industry since then, contributing hundreds of patterns to major national magazines, knitting books and yarn companies. 

Michele moved to Maine in 1990 where she continued her design career until the birth of her fourth child in 2002. After a few years off focusing on being a mom, she published Inspired to Knit (2008), which was her reentrance into the world of hand knitting design. Michele lives in Camden, Maine with her husband Matt, four children, and various other domestic creatures.