We recently connected with Emma Pantall and have shared our conversation below.

Emma , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

I learnt to weave through trial and error. The internet was a huge source of information, but for me it was mostly experimenting with techniques, colours, tools and supplies until I organically fell into the style that best represented who I am. I have long been interested in art and creating and i even work in a creative field (im a camera opertor for tv shows and documentaries). a long time lover of natural fibers i’ve had a growing collection of yarns and fibers without a real purpose as to what i was going to do with them. My sons dad is From Iceland, and they have a huge knitting culture and some of the most beautiful wools you can find anywhere. I’d been collecting for a few years and even tried knitting, but its to precise for me. Im a lover of the Japanese term, wabi-sabi, the beauty in the imperfect, and if I had continued knitting i would just end up with a 3 armed sweater. with weaving you can just weave without intent and let the fiber and the moment and mistakes guide you.

Knowing whatI know now I don’t think I would change to much. In the beginning I would see pieces or styles that I liked and would try to replicate them to understand how they got to that result, but honestly i think just doing the work, stitch by stitch and not being tied to a certain outcome is what helped me grow. if i had to pick one thing though, just trust in myself and my style sooner. A few years ago the whole boho/hippie style was really kicking off again and I would weave pieces and friends would like them because they felt familiar to stuff they were seeing out there, especially on instagram, but i felt those pieces didn’t really represent me. I would weave quirky pieces that i was sometimes scared to show people incase they thought they didnt like them even though i LOVED them. Those quirky pieces ended up being the pieces i would get the best responses to once they started being displayed in a little store in Topanga Canyon called Moonastar, run by the lovely and talented Monica.

the most crucial skill in weaving is patience. its a long slow process and really no way to speed things up, and who even wants to. with an ADHD brain, weaving is my meditation. It makes me slow down, breath and be in the moment. being a single, working parent i don’t get a lot of time to myself but weaving is my happy place. There really isn’t anything difficult about weaving, it has few basic requirements to get started and i love that it doesn’t use any kind of modern technology. its just me, a wooden loom, my wooden tools and some wool. i appreciate the ancient arts feel it has.

the obstacles that stand in my way of learning more is simply time and money. I only use natural yarns and wool, and i mostly source my wool from Iceland when i take my son there to visit his Icelandic family. i drive to small farms where they are processing their own wool and sometimes hand dyeing them with natural Icelands plants and herbs. So i guess the only other obstacle is how much i can bring home in my suticases.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am Australian and i live in Los Angeles and work in the tv business. My sons dad is from Iceland and between Iceland and Australia the inspirations that come from nature are extremely broad. i got into weaving because i’ve always been creative. I studied art in college and i’ve always felt a need to create and keep busy. Whether it was filming, cooking, painting, arts and crafts with the kiddo, i love making things. i had been collecting wools and yarns from Iceland and other places just because i liked them and without a real purpose. Weaving naturally came about because i needed to start using up some of my collection. and its the one craft i hadn’t tried yet. spending so much time in Iceland, i’d developed a great love and interest in all things Viking and even though i’m weaving in my condo in North Hollywood, i always like to imagine I’m sitting around a fireplace in a viking longhouse somewhere. I don’t just weave wall pieces, i love making baskets, arm cuffs, bookmarks and other functional pieces. Art you can actually use has always been a love of mine. I make one off pieces and because of the slow, handmade nature of what i do, no two pieces can ever be the same even if i tried. i think people like my work because of this. People want to fill their homes with beautiful things, but don’t always want what everyone else has. the dull, cold factory made objects that fill stores like Homegoods (sorry homegoods) aren’t for everyone. People love hand made, its connects them with the artist, and feels real, honest and makes them feel special to know that that unique piece is theirs to enjoy. Instagram is filled with perfect looking people and homes, and places but thats not real life. In my work the imperfect is celebrated and is part of the natural beauty. none of us is perfect and i think my handmade art is an expression and a celebration of that.
i use a lot of Icelandic wool (known as Lopi in Icelandic) there is one particular small family owned minimill that i source my yarn from called Uppspuni minimill (@uppspuni_minimill) their wool is gorgeous, and they do it because they love it, and i love being able to create art from their beautiful product which is a piece or art all by itself. honestly i sometimes just sit one of their spools of wool on my work bench and admire it for months before i even weave with it.

i guess i want people to see me. I’m essentially a really shy person, yes i work in television as a camera operator, but i get to hide behind the camera and i’m making pretty pictures for other people. my weaving is ALL me and every single stitch is a culmination of everything i’ve experienced up until that moment. i’ve never even had to think about my work this in depth before, i honestly weave because i have to, it keeps me sane.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

the lesson i had to unlearn was do not create for other people. Create for yourself and those that connect with it will find you. in the beginning i was mainly just drawing inspiration from weavers i had seen online, not to steal but rather to learn techniques and understand the process. it wasn’t until i started weaving from my heart that i really developed my own sense of style, really feeling the pieces that wanted to be created instead of trying to control the creative process and outcome.

i had been sharing my work with a friend, she was supportive of my work and i was trusting her opinion over my own. she really didn’t like the strange pieces i was making for me, and it made me shy to show them to others. I found myself making pieces for me, and then pieces for others. the weavings for others didn’t feel authentic. it wasn’t until Monica at Moonastar really LOVED my quirky pieces and wanted to display them that i realized, i had to weave for me and only me and then the people that connect with them will find me.

people still ask me “oh can you weave this for me?” and i always say no i can’t. i don’t weave on demand or create a piece exactly how you want it. the best i can do is is aim for a size you want and the rest i have no control over.
i really saw this come to life when a lovely lady i had never met, contacted me and told me she had just bought her 3 or 4th piece from me. in that moment i realized, i had a collector of my work. and that really made me feel i was doing something honest that people were seeing and connecting with.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

the most rewarding part of being creative is really just the process for me. its my mediation, its my love, to create a new piece out of raw materials with really no plan is very rewarding. If no one ever saw my work i would still create. my home would be filled with pieces stuffed into every nook and cranny. the fact that people love my work and want to own a piece is just a bonus. working with such beautiful materials seems like a real honour and priviledge.

Contact Info:

• Website: weavingwombat.com
• Instagram: @weaving_wombat

Image Credits
Danaya Wattanapan Emma Pantall