About Us

Erin Pollard grew up in Gray, Maine, in a community defined by hard work and handmade things. Raised in the orbit of her family’s bustling diner and her mother’s weaving studio, Erin’s worldview was formed by the click-clack of rattan and the values of lineage and labor.

She witnessed the golden era of Maine craftsmanship—where her mother wove for L.L.Bean and taught workshops in their basement—and the eventual shift toward the speed and convenience of the digital age. Today, Erin bridges that gap. Through her writing and her work at Underwater Weaving Studio, she explores the tension between "progress" and preservation, reviving the slow, tactile traditions of her childhood for a modern world.

 

We are an American Basket Atelier rooted in elevated craftsmanship. Underwater Weaving Studio takes its title from the literal process of soaking material to make it supple, but also from the cultural punchline used to dismiss domestic labor and vocational learning. We embrace the phrase to turn a joke into a statement: that softness, slowness, and beauty are sources of immense power. Every basket shaped here is a vessel of intention. The work is a dialogue between the past and the present, drawing on Maine’s rich Wabanaki and Shaker legacies while filtering them through a modern lens shaped by fashion publishing, dance, and design. These influences coalesce into forms that are grounded yet lyrical—objects that are as helpful as they are poetic.

The name itself is layered: rooted in the literal process of soaking weaving materials to make them supple, while also nodding to a phrase historically used to undermine vocational learning and domestic labor. By embracing “underwater basket weaving,” we turn what was once a punchline into a statement—one that centers softness, beauty, and slowness as sources of power.

Our baskets are born from a unique and powerful collaboration between two generations. It is the story of a mother, whose hands hold decades of mastery in the traditional art of basket weaving, and a daughter, whose eye has been shaped by years in the worlds of art, movement, fashion, and design.

This is where time-honored technique and modern vision collide. A mother’s profound knowledge of material and form provides the soul of each piece. The daughter’s influence introduces a refined, contemporary aesthetic, infusing every basket with a sense of modern relevance and sophisticated style. The result is not simply a basket, but a singular object meticulously crafted to be the most exceptional offering of its kind in America.

Underwater Weaving Studio doesn’t just exist in the basket revival—it’s pushing its edges. With partnerships spanning small farms to fashion houses and installations that blur the line between art and utility, the studio quietly leads a cultural movement that honors the handmade, the inherited, and the overlooked.

Underwater Weaving Baskets and kits are available at Moda Operandi, Over The Moon, The Expert, Slow Roads, The Post Supply, Vestige, MADOO, The Citizenry, and more select independent shops nationwide.