Louisa Archer

Louisa studied Woven Textile Design at Winchester School of Art (1992) and the Royal College of Art (1994), she worked as a fabric designer in London, New York, Italy and Hong Kong. Her QEST Scholarship took her to Yunnan Province in China to study hemp weaving and production, including natural indigo pigmentation techniques. She used the knowledge gained there to develop and refine her own hand-weaving and vegetal-dyeing processes. She continues to explore yarn colouration with plants in her local area and is inspired by ancient fabric construction, archaeological finds, memento mori, tribal costume and museum exhibits. Louisa produces handwoven textiles for exhibitions and theatre, including mummery and puppetry pieces.