Emma Welty
Name: Emma Welty
Studio location: Woodbury, CT
Website / social links: emmawelty.com, @emma_welty
Loom type or tool preference: Macomber Ad-A-Harness, Leclerc Tapestry Loom
Years weaving: 10
Fiber inclination: wool (or anything I can spin)
Current favorite weaving book: The Art of Tapestry Weaving, Rebecca Mezoff. Also very excited to get my hands on Tommye McClure Scanlin’s new book Tapestry Design Basics and Beyond
1. How did you discover weaving and was what your greatest resource as a beginner?
I learned to weave as an undergraduate at Massachusetts College of Art and Design. My teachers were my biggest source of knowledge, Ann Wessmann — my weaving professor, and Tess Fredette — the Textile Conservator at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.
2. How do you define your practice – do you consider yourself an artist / craftsperson / weaver / designer / general creative or a combination of those? Is this definition important to you?
Recently I have started defining myself as a cultural worker. My education was a balance of between art, craft and art history. My research about craft preservation and cultural memory, specifically in the Armenian diaspora, holds equal time in my studio with physical making.
3. Describe your first experience with weaving.
Most certainly pot holder looms as a child. I also made a woven reed basket at summer camp that I still have on my desk. My mom taught me my sewing/cloth-making basics and I did a lot of knitting as a teenager. I didn’t sit at my first floor loom until Weaving 1 with Ann and when I did I gravitated to tapestry right away.
4. What is your creative process, from the initial idea to the finished piece? Are there specific weave structures, looms, or fibers that are important to your process?
I start in two places - reading/research and spinning/material sampling. When I am reading, I write down/highlight/screen cap words and phrases that seem to work in and out of their immediate context. I also make a lot of flow charts in my notebook to help me conceptualize and expand my research topics.
On the material side, I often begin by dyeing and spinning yarn from raw wool or reclaiming/upcycling second hand cloth or yarn. I make small samples on frame looms to test colors, structures and gauges of cloth. I often wind long carpet warps for the floor looms without having all my weavings completely planned so the fixed weft dimension becomes a starting point.
At a certain point the two sides of the studio will come together. A texture/color/fiber combo will make its way to the right piece of text or research and the work builds from there. As I’ve started incorporating lacemaking and other adornments into my studio, there is often some post-production off loom with additive needle processes.
5. Does your work have a conceptual purpose or greater meaning? If so, do you center your making around these concepts?
I have had several large themes that have moved through my studio in the last decade, including textile labor histories and the ecological and ethical footprint of contemporary cloth consumption, as well as Armenian cultural memory and matrilineal inheritance. These concepts come into the work through the didactic text elements, the traditional cloth techniques like carpet and needlelace, and my material choices.
6. What is your favorite part of the weaving process and why? What’s your least favorite?
I have always focused on tapestry and rug weaving because I don’t love threading but I love the slow weave. I love the freedom that tapestry allows and the fact that two weavings on the same warp can do totally separate things.
7. Do you sell your work or make a living from weaving? If so, what does that look like and how has that affected your studio practice?
This is the first year I have been working in my studio full time. I sell work, do textile repairs, teach workshops, and other odd jobs when they come up. I have made the decision to live on less in order to invest in my studio time and research, and while the finances can be stressful, I couldn’t be more confident in my decision to be making every day.
8. Where do you find inspiration?
My inspiration always comes from cloth makers who came before me, whether my own ancestors or the many garment workers that still struggle for liberation. I also love wordplay and I use a wide range of different sources for the text I weave, such as folktales, laundry labels, ancient proverbs, social media, craft tutorials and reality television. I am also fascinated by the way Armenian-American identity is represented in popular culture, most readily by Cher and the Kardashian sisters.
9. What other creatives do you admire – weavers, artists, entrepreneurs – and why?
The makers I admire the most are the family members who teach craft traditions to the next generations, and the ancestors who taught them.
Some artists that I look to often include, Cecilia Vicuna, Tanya Aguinina, Sonya Clark, Jeffrey Gibson, Nari Ward, Diedrick Brackens, Raven Halfmoon, and Silvinia Der Meguerditchian.
All these artists handle intergenerational crafts and materials, from within diasporic and/or colonized communities. Silvinia Der Meguerditchian holds a special place for me as the subject of some of my graduate school research.
10. If you could no longer weave, what would you do instead?
If I was unable to weave I would likely focus on writing about folk craft. I feel so connected to the history of cloth labor, I don’t think I will ever not be thinking about weaving.
Do you have any upcoming exhibits, talks, or events the community should know about?
My work is currently on view at Studio Hill Gallery in Woodbury CT, through August 15. I’m also currently a virtual artist in residence at the Museum of Arts and Design so you can find me there doing events open studios events, panel discussions and lacemaking workshops through January 2022.
images by Brian Morringiello
