Samorn Sanixay is a Canberra based textile designer and weaver with more than twenty years experience in textiles and natural dyeing. From 2002 to 2005, Samorn was as an apprentice under the guidance of Master weaver Khaisy Sophabmixay, who was born in Sam Neau in north eastern Laos, an area known for some of the most exquisite weavings in the world. In 2004, the Eastern Weft weaving cooperative was established to support disadvantaged young Lao artisans of ethnic minority hill tribes through traditional Lao textile crafts. In 2006, Samorn returned to Australia. The philosophy that Samorn lives by is local and seasonal, this means working in harmony with Mother Nature. Samorn works to champion the art of natural dyeing and indigenous weaving and crafts of people around the world. Eastern Weft has produced textiles for many well known fashion designers and has exhibited in Paris and Japan. In 2019, won an award for Best Supplementary Weft textiles at the ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations) Textile Awards. It wasn’t until moving to the foothills of Mount Majura in Canberra in 2012 that Samorn began a deep appreciation for local eucalypts and native plants. In 2022, Samorn was awarded a Dahl Fellowship from Eucalypt Australia. Her project is to create a eucalypt colour map by extracting dyes from leaves of eucalypt species collected across Australia. In each location Samorn met with Aboriginal elders and artists and shared traditional Lao dyeing techniques. Aboriginal elders shared knowledge of local plants passed down from their ancestors.
