© 2024. Lisa Rayner Books is my book publishing page.
I live in Santa Fe, New Mexico. I’m a non-binary, autistic, physically disabled artist, writer and activist. I have interests in weaving clothing fabrics, sustainable living, social and economic justice, ecosystem health, planetary boundaries, and ecoableism. Our backyard is a small permaculture forest garden.
The child of an organic chemist and a virologist, I have long had an interest in the natural world. As a child, I was an avid collector of seashells, rocks and minerals, a bird watcher and more. The evidence of my interests can be found in every room of mybhouse. I spent much of my time exploring the forest around my Delaware home and reading about my interests in nature, archeology, and science. I had a natural history museum in my bedroom closet with a scientific mollusk collection from elementary to high school.
I learned how to weave from my mother as a child. My Etsy shop Lisa Rayner Handwovens sells my book Freeform Overshot for Beginners and weaving patterns for freeform overshot and twill for most loom types—shaft, rigid heddle, frame and pin looms—as well as wearable art yarn weaving technique books and projects.
My interest in traditional clothing, beading and jewelry along the Silk Roads grew out of my explorations into my Transylvanian/Balkan/Eurasian steppe nomad/Indigenous Siberian ancestry.
My formal education: I have a 1991 Bachelor of Science in Natural Resource Interpretation from Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff. I graduated from the 1993 Black Mesa Permaculture Project’s Design Certification Course and 1994 Coconino County Master Gardener Program.
In 1995 I learned how to bake sourdough bread and cook with solar cookers.
In 1996, I found a word processor while dumpster-diving and wrote my first book, Growing Food in the Southwest Mountains (1996, 2023). I later self published other books: The Sunny Side of Cooking solar cookbook (2007, 2023), and Wild Bread sourdough (2009, 2023). My freeform overshot Mermaid Scarf appeared on the cover of the Nov./Dec. 2015 issue of Handwoven magazine. I published Freeform Overshot for Beginners in April 2023.
I live with Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, a genetic connective tissue disorder with systemic health effects that affect the musculoskeletal system, pulmonary function, nervous system, GI tract, immune system and more. It took years of having my symptoms disbelieved by doctors before my 2020 diagnosis.
I receive SSDI. I have multiple breathing problems from EDS including bronchiectasis, atelectasis, mast cell activation, and dysautonomia. I require supplemental oxygen. A large part of my diet today is Kate Farms sole nutrition formula, which is plant based. I have been vegan since 1986. My ethical perspective is that of ahimsa, nonviolence and non-injury, a part of Hindu beliefs.
A little about my social justice activism: I joined the LGBTQIA2S+ civil rights movement in 2001. In 2008 I won the Martin-Springer Institute Moral Courage Award and the Friends of Flagstaff’s Future Livable Community Award. In 2009 I was a Garden’s for Humanity Visionary Awardee. I was the primary organizer for enacting an LGBTQIA2S+ inclusive anti-bullying/safe schools policy in 2011 for the Flagstaff Unified School District. I co-organized activists working to create a civil rights ordinance in Flagstaff, Arizona that protects people on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. It passed in 2013.
I can be found online blogging, writing freelance articles about disability, neurodivergence, LGBTQIA2S+ communities, and energy descent, selling my books and weaving patterns, and being an online activist for social, economic, and ecological justice.
My social justice awards:
※ 2008 Martin-Springer Institute Moral Courage Award
※ 2008 Friends of Flagstaff’s Future Livable Community Award.
※ 2009 Gardens for Humanity Visionary Awardee.
Follow me on Instagram:
I also have a YouTube channel.
Lisa Rayner 
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