Heidi Hammel became a wool sweater addict at the impressionable age of 12, when her family traveled to Norway. She has worked with fiber ever since. Thrift and creativity prompted her to learn how to sew and decorate her own clothes. After twenty-five years as a leader in progressive education, she resumed a focused exploration of fiber arts in 1998. Two overarching principles guide her work. As a student and former teacher at The School in Rose Valley, which started in the heart of the 1920’s Arts and Crafts era, she absorbed the ethic that an artisan strives to make quality hand-made objects that are both functional and aesthetically pleasing. As the child of an avid naturalist, she learned to honor the intrinsic connections between all things.