About me

I have been teaching fiber arts in person since 1992, and online since about 1996.

My specialty is historical textile techniques, especially those like braiding and tablet weaving that can produce very complicated structures with minimal equipment. I’m also interested in popularizing obscure techniques like sprang and naalbinding. There’s history and technique information for some of these things available through the links on the left. My blog String Notes has tips, tricks, book reviews, and other assorted less-formal or shorter writings.

When I’m not teaching fiber arts or writing science fiction, I’m a research ecologist investigating patterns of plant biodiversity and their relationship to ecosystem function and productivity. I’m also interested in medieval and Renaissanace science.