Sustainable Ewe
Artist Lisa Heinz’s Wonderful World of Wool
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Story by Shane Bradshaw | Photos by Meghan Rowe and Shane Bradshaw
isa Heinz is an Athens-based artist whose creative curiosity and sustainable ethos takes her from farm to fiber craft to farmer’s market. Heinz is the owner of Southeast Ohio Fiberworks, a small business committed to creating ethically sourced and reworked wool products like yarn, roving and fleece. Heinz spends most of her days in her happy place: A garage-turned studio filled with endless yards of yarn, a dyeing station and plastic bins containing 300 pounds of wool. Despite being elbow-deep in projects, Heinz pauses her work to answer some questions about how she arrived at this place – both figuratively and literally.
Tell us about your background in fiber arts. I’ve been into textiles, fiber crafting and sewing since I was a child. I’ve been in and out of the fiber craft areas. I picked up quilting after I got married and came to Athens in ’92. Prior to that, I learned crochet and embroidery from two grandparents and sewing from my mom. I just kind of took those skills and had odd jobs. Like 34 | Summer/Fall 2021
when I was at Michigan Tech, I spent two years in the costume shop doing things with the theater, or about 15 years ago when I started knitting socks and I just kept on going from there. How did Southeast Ohio Fiberworks come about? This business had been in the back of my mind for probably five or six years. I would wonder, well where
