My friend Susi Dunsmore, who has died aged 90, was an authority on Nepalese textile traditions, which she first recorded in two books, published in her handwritten text, with her own line drawings, Weaving in Nepal (1983), mainly about Dhaka weaving, and The Nettle in Nepal (2006).

She was born in Charlottenburg, Berlin, to Margarete (nee Hickmann), a telephone operator, and Julius Heinze, a bank clerk. After attending art school in Düsseldorf, in 1958 she was invited to teach at a teachers’ training college in Kuching, Borneo, where she wrote handbooks on art education. There she met her future husband, John Dunsmore, who was working in the department of agriculture, and also developed her appreciation of indigenous cultures.

This interest grew as she accompanied John to Belize and the Gambia, culminating in their work on sustainable development in Nepal. In eastern Nepal they encountered strong weaving traditions: in Dhankuta women produce a colourful fabric, dhaka cloth, and in Sankhuwasabha they spin and weave allo, the Himalayan giant nettle. Susi worked with the women to develop their skills and to introduce money-making products. She is remembered, for her assistance and friendship, as Allo Didi, meaning Auntie Nettle.

On John’s retirement in 1987, they moved to Great Bookham, Surrey, where Susi became a mainstay of the United Reformed Church. Her book Nepalese Textiles was published by the British Museum in 1993. At the age of 72 she was invited to lead a workshop in Qinghai province, China, at an altitude of 3,200 metres.

After John’s death in 2001, Susi continued to help Nepalese craftswomen. As a member of the London Guild of Weavers, she organised a competition to produce new designs for nettle fibre. This led to several guild members going to Kathmandu in 2004 to run a workshop for women from Sankhuwasabha.

To continue this work and in memory of her husband, Susi set up a charity, the John Dunsmore Nepalese Textile Trust, which I chair. The trust has links with students from the Royal College of Art, for which Susi established a travel scholarship.

Susi also supported the Nepal Leprosy Trust, arranging fundraising concerts at the United Reform Church, featuring students from the Yehudi Menuhin school in Surrey. Other church activities included commissioning a window from the glass artist Sabrina Cant, and wall hangings from Angus Williams. She wove these with Ang Diku Sherpa, a friend since 1984, members of the congregation and her sister, Gisela, for whom she cared after a stroke until her death in 2012.

Last year Susi went through her papers and turned them into a book, Notes on Nepal’s Creative Basketry, again in her own handwriting and diagrams.