Guest blog post by Emmett Ramstad

This guest post was written by Emmett Ramstad, an arts educator and sculptor who works as a teaching artist with COMPAS and at the University of Minnesota. COMPAS Teaching Artists have the opportunity to apply for a professional development mini-grant to learn new skills, work with a new community or setting, advance their technological abilities, integrate equity work into their teaching or train with a mentor / community leader. Emmett received a grant this year to learn SAORI Weaving from COMPAS Teaching Artist Chiaki O’Brien through her class offered by the Weavers Guild of Minnesota and explore how weaving might be incorporated into his sculpture practice. In the blog post, Emmett shares some of the inspiration and insight he gained while working with Chiaki.

When I go to sleep and when I wake up, I look at a weaving hanging on my bedroom wall that my artist friend Molly Roth Scranton made. Woven into the blues and pinks are pieces of my old sweatpants, a bit of my kid Kit’s sock, a shirt I wore in grad school, along with puffs of pink that remind me of cotton candy. The tails of the weaving dangle down, and Kit practices braiding them.

Molly learned SAORI weaving from Chiaki O’Brien, who works at COMPAS with me. So, when there was an offer for a COMPAS learning grant, I knew I wanted to learn weaving with Chiaki. I intuited that weaving would tie right into my teaching. 

In each class I teach, I will say at least once, “There are so many different ways to do it.” This has become a part of my teaching philosophy, wisdom I got from a teacher friend Erika Englund. Students roll their eyes at me because I say it so many times, but there just are so many ways to do something. Especially with art. And then I add: “Start with a solid base.” When Kit and I sat down to our SAORI looms at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts on a summer morning, I was delighted but not surprised by how much Chiaki’s philosophy overlapped and complimented my own. 

Chiaki started by briefly sharing her and the SAORI weaving philosophy, which includes exploration of color and texture, proceeding with a happy heart, and learning together as a group. Then she showed us the mechanism of the loom. Within 15 minutes, we were weaving. She told us that everyone’s weaving will be unique and that we can have fun. Rules? She simply said, “Just don’t break the looms.” I found myself experimenting from the start, even though I often tell Kit: “Learn how to do it first and then experiment.” But I don’t do that! I made big gaps in my weaving on purpose, I added materials at random intervals, I skipped a step and just fed the thread by hand. In other words, I played with what it was like to build and have fun with a loom. And so did Kit. She got into colors and weaving large chunks of wool. She was happily immersed for the entire three hours. Experimenting is learning.

SAORI Weaving

Led by COMPAS Teaching Artist Chiaki O'Brien

Initially, I wanted to take the weaving class to figure out how to integrate weaving in my Soft Sculpture workshop, but what I really took away from the class is that describing my philosophy of making, sharing the “so many different ways,” is the invitation that artists need to experiment on their own visions. And that I can add community awareness to my vision, too. We learn from each other. And that those of us who teach can do what Chiaki does, share a little, provide a table of materials, and then be there to support experimentation. 

When we left our Saturday morning weaving workshop, Kit asked me, “Can we take another class?” I said, “Of course!” She responded: “This afternoon?!” We will be back to weave again soon! Thank you to Chiaki and COMPAS for this wonderful opportunity.

Learn more about Emmett.

Learn more about Chiaki.