No artist embodies the phrase ‘hands-on’ quite like Emma Shepherd. Working from her small, farm-based studio on the Mornington Peninsula, Emma has spent the past decade honouring the centuries-old tradition of weaving through her label, Sundance Studio. Each piece she created is a meticulous labour of love, requiring hours of focused work. While others might find the process repetitive, for Emma, it is the slowness and rhythm that fuels her creativity.
Drawn instinctively to texture and tactility, Emma first discovered weaving in 2016 while studying Textile Design at RMIT “I was really lucky to have stumbled across my degree, which I loved despite not really understanding what textile design was when I started,” she explains, “I was immediately drawn to the looms – the slowness, the yarns, the repetitive process, the potential. Weaving has such a rich history, there is endless inspiration.”
After completing her studies, Emma set her sights overseas, eager to expand her understanding of weaving through hands-on experience. “I travelled and undertook a residency in Iceland, then interned with weavers in Belgium and the USA,” she says. Like many creatives, the onset of the pandemic proved to be a positive thing for her art, allowing her the time and space to immerse herself fully in her craft.
While her inspiration stems from a mix of sources — namely books, interiors, and the natural world — Emma cites the Bauhaus era as her most enduring creative anchor. Defined by its emphasis on minimalism and geometry, this influence is evident in the shapes and patterns that run through her work. Since launching Sundance Studio in 2020, she has cultivated a body of work that sits at the intersection of art and utility, offering both abstract textile works and functional pieces for the home.
Patience is at the core of Emma’s practice. When asked about her creative process, she explains “I usually start by sketching some ideas - often inspired by materials, colours or patterns I have come across, and then set up the loom to experiment.” The setup process is among the most time-consuming parts of weaving, with warping alone taking up to eight hours as each thread is carefully installed and stretched to ensure a smooth weave. “[Once set up], I can weave a number of pieces on that warp, and it really depends on the piece as to the pace,” she says. “Simple cloth may take an hour to weave 50cm, more complex processes take longer. Often it’s the development of a good piece, all the trials, thinking and failures that take the most time.”
What distinguishes Emma’s work is the strong sense of place woven into each of her creations. “[I source materials] from all over the world - silks and banana fibre from India, linen from Europe, bast fibres from Japan,” she says. “More locally, I am able to get wool from the Australian Tapestry Workshop. I also utilise what I can find around the farm where I live, so horsehair, bark, pine needles.” These grounded, organic elements give her work a quiet, tactile resonance, one that connects ancient technique with contemporary expression.
For her most recent collection, Lune — currently in residence at our Mornington and Paddington boutiques — Emma set out to explore material contrasts, highlighting the interplay between hard and soft, transparent and opaque. “I wanted to show how light passes through different materials, and how simple forms can allow the material to express itself,” she explains. Working with materials such as cotton, linen, granite and aluminium, each piece in the series reflects a dialogue between structure and softness, which Emma hopes will invite viewers to feel a sense of peace and curiosity.
Looking ahead, Emma is continuing to explore new ways of working with fibre and form, having just finished a piece for the Rigg Design Prize which is to be held at the National Gallery of Victoria. “That’s been exciting, but it’s a relief to have it finished,” she says. “I’m also working towards a show with a ceramicist, Thannie Phan at Lander - Se, a friend’s beautiful gallery in Red Hill in summer, as well as some larger scale commissions.”
Emma’s work will be on display exclusively in our Mornington and Paddington stores for a limited-time.
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Imagery: Phillip Huynh
