Ragnhild Lie

Biography: Ragnhild Lie grew up in Gudbrandsdalen and Lillehammer and has knitted, chrochet, braided, sewn and woven since she was little. Ragnhild is educated as textile artisan and holds a MA in Textiles from Bergen school of Art took in 1997. Her broad range of textile-based experience includes fine art, theater and education. She has worked at Sjølingstad Wool Mill, studied tapestry at Oslo University College of Art and Design, taught at Lofoten School of Arts for kids and led courses from kindergarten to university level. She works as lecturer and textile artist within the textile field in Norway. She now lives and works on the farm in Stamsund where she manages and develop the business Lofoten Wool established in 2014. On the farm of Lofoten Wool business, Ragnhild has a herd of 30 sheep which provide the company with wool and meat. The meat is sold to a local slaughterhouse (located in Leknes, about 7 km from Lofoten Wool), while the wool is processed in order to create the woolen products sold in the Lofoten Wool shops, online and to third party resellers. Environmental sustainability is the key principle of Ragnhild's corporate and production philosophy.

Relation to the area incomer

Occupation Crafts person in fibre and textile craftsartist

The practitioner moved to Lofoten before 2013 but not specified when, almost casually. According to Ragnhild, Lofoten is an Eldorado for wool and lamb/sheep meat that wasn't developed. Most of the wool produced in Lofoten was and still is exported to England to never come back to Norway. Ragnhild realised she should have taken action to reverse this trend and to give new prominence to the wool produced by Lofoten sheep at a more local level.

Materials Description Wool and silk

Type of involvement full-time paid job