With support from the Playking Foundation the ATW commissioned fifteen Australian artists to develop tapestry designs in 2020 as part of the ongoing Weaving Futures project. 'Planted Together' was one of designs created by Emily Ferretti for the Weaving Futures and in 2022 was selected to be woven offsite in ATW Senior Weaver Jennifer Sharpe’s Castlemaine studio. Emily writes:

‘When making the 'Planted Together' drawings I was thinking of the connection between pencil line and thread line and the translation from one to the other. I was very attracted to the connection between the visual effects of mixing coloured threads on a spool and the layering of pencil colours that can create a similar depth and mottled effect. I experimented with the motifs of the two trees in ‘Planted Together’ as a way of representing ideas around human connection and growth with the trees touching each other almost in a dance. I wanted to create movement in the work by using graphic representations of wind and cloud forms in the swirling shapes at the top of the work, and by using reflections, shadows and water motifs at the bottom of the work’

'Planted Together' was woven with number 18 warp at 3 warps per cm, predominantly using wool with additional cotton to provide sheen and colour brightness. Colour mixes on the bobbins were quite varied, with all 6 strands being different colours. This results in a flecky quality that reflects the many small fine pencil marks in Emily's drawing. Jennifer Sharpe has captured the movement and lyrical mark making in the original design in her woven interpretation through this colour mixing process.

Emily Ferretti is a painter whose figurative and abstract images derive equally from collected images, memory and the imagination. As a result her images mirror their conception, hovering between representation and abstraction. Recurring motifs include rural and domestic scenes and while they are devoid of people, their presence is palpable. Ferretti’s paintings engage with a history of picture making across genres and traditions. Dedicated to a full-time studio practice over the past fifteen years, she has exhibited widely and undertaken studio residences including Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne, Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, and Green Street Studio, New York.