It started with a pine needle basket woven of white pine needles in June of 1994 at the SCJ Lighthouse resort. Francis Whitfield was the native instructor for the resort that year.
Pam has since traveled to Thailand with the Royalwood tour and has made 13 trips to Alaska since 1998, to learn Pine Needle Basketry from Jeannie McFarland and Native Haida weaving with Delores Churchill. She also goes to harvest and prepare her own western red and Alaskan yellow cedar barks and Sitka spruce root. She has traveled to Scotland and Ireland to learn from the local basket makers.
She loves everything about weaving, from the gathering and preparation of materials to creating beautiful, mostly functional vessels. The connection of weaving across the cultures continues to amaze and inspire her. Sharing her knowledge and continuing to learn from other weavers brings her great joy.
Pam has earned many awards, among them; the AMB Best Coiled for General Membership in 2003. In 2004 she won the Teachers awards for both Coiled and Naturals, for Coiled in 2005, for both Coiled and Art Piece in 2006, she won the AMB best coiled Teacher in 2009, Missouri Basket Guild Coiled, the AMB Coveted Viewer’s Choice Award in 2010. 3 first place awards at the NCBA convention 2013, Northeast Basket Makers Best In Show 2026
In 2001 she donated 3 weeks and over 200 hours of time to weave a family of willow Tepees for the Ronald McDonald house, which are still used by the kids today.
Pam teaches around the country at conventions in Texas, North Carolina, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Alaska, Michigan, Georgia, Minnesota, Tennessee, Virginia, Ohio and Wisconsin, to name a few. She also teaches in her private studio in Waterford when she is not on the road.
Pam completed three baskets for the Hoard Museum of Fort Atkinson, which are permanently displayed in their Mystery of the Mounds Exhibit, opened April 2009.
Pam traveled to Dharmashala, India for 2 ½ weeks in November of 2010 to teach the local women pine needle basketry so that they may have an industry to earn a living and make use of their long leaf Cher pine needles.
Her work has been featured on the cover of the Wisconsin People & Ideas Magazine. Vol56/NO 4 2010, the National Basketry Organization’s Quarterly Review Summer 2015 as well as in Fiber Art Now in 2015.
Her work has been on exhibit at the Phillip Dickel Museum in Amana, Iowa as well as the National Basketry Organization’s ‘All Things Considered’
You can find Pam on Instagram @weavingabundance