Where did your interest in basketry and connecting others through craft start?
I grew up in Maine. As a child, my mother was an avid crafter and basket maker. She taught basket weaving workshops in our basement, opened a craft store to sell her baskets, and eventually gathered a group of women to help her produce a basket for LL Bean. When I started weaving, I felt compelled to discover the same materials on my own.My work was at first abstract, but she set the groundwork for everything we’re doing now.
Tell us about your basket atelier, creative weaving studio, and community - Underwater Weaving!
Underwater Weaving is a basket atelier, creative weaving studio, and community. We make hand woven, one-of-a-kind contemporary baskets for the trade, retail and private commission. Through group weaving gatherings we endeavor to revive the craft of basketry, encourage creative freedom, and offer access to mediation through connecting the hands, heart and mind with natural materials.
What’s your favorite part about the New York creative community? Tell us about the importance of the group weaving aspect of your studio.
My New York community inspires me. The energy people invest in their work is so tangible, fresh and culturally shape shifting. I think the fast growth of technology and social media timed with an isolating pandemic has us craving connection to humans and hand-craft. The basket has long represented gathering, nurturing and sharing. Making them is meditative and grounding and to experience that with others can be spiritually uplifting.
How do you choose your weaving materials? Do you focus solely on traditional natural basketry materials or are you experimenting with unconventional weaving matter?
The baskets we sell are made with the inner layer of the Rattan vine. Additionally, our basket kits and classes are taught using this material. However, much of the exploratory work and art that I make utilizes materials including ash, deadstock leather scraps, seagrass, grape vine etc. Each material requires a different language, but I love weaving with any material, including the vegetables and flowers from our garden.
Do you have any new exciting projects on the horizon?
YES! You have to join our basket weaving club! When you sign up, you receive a bi-monthly basket weaving kit in the mail, plus discounts, access to workshops and more. Anyone can join… it’s even great for kids. The first kit will be sent out on October 15 and if you sign up now, you get our introductory pricing. Everyone should do this, it’s good for the soul.
Follow along:
www.underwaterweaving.com
@underwater_weaving