We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Pamela Whitlock a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Pamela , thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

The moment I knew I wanted to design textiles was when I was 11. I was with my mom in NYC at the D+D building looking through swatch books for upholstery fabric for new furniture. I loved the small squares of different textures/colors. I was hooked. That was in 1963.

Pamela , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

It was inevitable that I would become a hippie, my mom was a beatnik of sorts. Hippies wanted to make everything they could-from food to clothing to log cabins. I took my first (and only) weaving class in Vermont in 1969 the week before Woodstock. I bought my first loom in 1974 when I was living in New Zealand and had it shipped to the US once I moved back. Since then I’ve owned many different looms.
I’ve tried weaving all different weave structures, I’ve gone through different color fads. And then I settled on shadow weave technique because it is immediately recognizable. And because not many people do it.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Being an artist (or in my circumstance a craftsman) has never been easy. How many years did it really take me to feel like I was making progress? I honestly don’t know. There were so many hiccups along the way including going through recessions, 9/11, and Covid. But I kept going. As long as I could buy yarn I could create. Covid was dreamlike. I could weave all the time. I had no shows to go to!

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

I love coming into my studio each day, mainly to answer to me. I love my wall of color!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://sosumiweaving.com
• Instagram: sosumiweaving

Image Credits

Just my name.