Docey Lewis - April 6, 6pm

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Docey Lewis has worked for more than twenty-five years as a handcrafted products designer in over thirty countries for both commercial companies and international development organizations. She began her career as a weaver and fabric designer specializing in yarn design and fashion fabrics. She later moved into designing and producing natural fiber wallcovering and fabrics for interiors. Clients have included Christian Dior, Oleg Cassini, Silk Dynasty, Cowtan & Tout, Larsen, Maya Romanoff, 3form and Donghia. Her award winning collections are available through to-the-trade showrooms in the US and abroad. In the early 1980’s Docey founded a weaving factory and commercial design studio in the Philippines, and later expanded into designing gifts, decorative accessories and dinnerware when she opened IMA, a retail store at the Hyatt Hotel Baguio. In 2003 Docey relocated her design studio from Connecticut to New Harmony, Indiana, a historic arts community on the Wabash River. Docey Lewis

In the late 90’s she established a partnership with a company in Nepal. There she and her son work with over 1,000 artisans to produce natural fiber wall coverings for residential and commercial markets and specialty interlayers for 3form’s eco-resin panels. In 2008 Docey initiated an eBay Foundation funded project with Aid to Artisans to produce the Artisans’ Health and Safety Manual, a guerilla guide to improving practices in artisan workplaces in the developing world. Aided by the Hunter Douglas Charitable Endowment, she is also spearheading a pilot project to clean up village dye effluent and to introduce a closed-loop dyeing process that will be safer for both the artisans and the environment. 

Docey is also a Senior Design Consultant to Aid to Artisans (ATA), and has been active on projects with them since 1987, most recently working with sisal and silk in Colombia and organic cotton in Senegal. A former Board member of Aid to Artisans, and The Crafts Center, she is now an ATA Special Advisor to the Board and is active on the Aid to Artisans Small Grants Committee.