From concept development to artwork creation, Kamilah Ahmed works across a wide spectrum of projects, from bespoke collaborations to large-scale public commissions
Her practice grows out of a continual process of research, drawing, and dialogue with clients and partners. Over the past decade, she has developed an approach that brings together heritage textile techniques and contemporary design
STUDIO
Embroidery, heritage craft and material innovation
In her London, Bloomsbury studio at Cockpit Arts, Kamilah Ahmed develops embroidered works that merge heritage craftsmanship with contemporary design. Since establishing her practice, she has shaped a distinctive approach that balances technical mastery with storytelling, offering embroidery that is both culturally resonant and materially ambitious.
Her pieces span silk tapestries, embroidered wall coverings, site-specific installations, furniture, and bespoke details for interiors. Recent projects include embroidered wall upholstery for de Gournay, soft furnishings and collaborative furniture works with Spinocchia Freund and Kuhn, with upcoming large scale installations for Collect Open Somerset House, and The Arab Hall at Leighton House. Each project is developed in close collaboration with clients and partners, ensuring solutions that combine artistry with innovation.
APPROACH
From research to realisation, through craft and conversation
The studio functions as a creative design laboratory and production space, where every stage of the process from research and sampling to execution is developed in-house and with long-term artisan partners. Each project begins with focused research into materials and motifs, translated into detailed design drawings and embroidery keys, then expanded through sampling, experimentation, and dialogue with collaborators.
Collaboration is integral: projects often involve partnerships with interior designers, architects, and master craftspeople in the UK and South-East Asia. Depending on scale, Kamilah coordinates artisans whose expertise spans ari hook embroidery, raffia, goldwork, beadwork, and experimental digital processes, enabling the studio to adapt to both intimate and large commissions.
ARTISANAL EXPERTISE
Embroidery as archive and experiment
Kamilah’s practice lies in reinterpreting heritage techniques from hand-wrapped silk warps to Jamdani-inspired woven embroideries through contemporary methods. Her design process integrates technical plotting, laser-cut motifs, and digital stitch programming, blending precision with freedom of mark-making. The results are embroidered surfaces that combine traditional stitches with unexpected materials such as metallic mesh, glass, and wood.
This approach has led to works that are both innovative and rooted in tradition: silk-fringed panels, sculptural mesh tapestries, and site-specific installations where embroidery interacts with light, scale, and architectural space. The studio continues to push embroidery beyond conventional boundaries, developing pieces that act as both cultural archive and contemporary expression.
