It’s what you don’t see

October 27, 2025  |  My Take

When I first decided on a topic for a “Featured” article this month, I was thinking of textiles that are part of the industry but aren’t necessarily thought of as textiles. Or textiles that are literally hidden inside other materials, as it is with some composites. Or biomedical textiles that …
Read More
The magical realism of biomaterials

September 8, 2025  |  My Take

In writing, “magical realism” is a genre of fiction that combines realism with magical elements, but (if you’re good at this sort of writing) the magical elements seem plausible—fitting in, but blurring the lines, between what we know and what we can imagine. This, to me, is where some of to…
Read More
The 3Rs live on

August 11, 2025  |  My Take

The phrase “reduce, reuse, recycle” came into popular use in the early 1970s and gave us a simple framework to move towards more responsible use of resources. I could write pages (I’ll bet many of you could, too) describing the many ways we can practice the “3 R’s” as individuals, in our…
Read More
Can you define “polymer?”

July 14, 2025  |  My Take

You all know what polymers are, more or less, and some of you know way more, but what if you were asked to help someone, who doesn’t know, understand it?
Read More
It’s still silver. For now. 

June 23, 2025  |  My Take

That would be the short version of where we’re at with antimicrobials, but it needs, of course, a more detailed response to what is actually a complex question: What’s happening with antimicrobial treatments and textiles? Today’s market includes more than what we think of as an “antimicrobia…
Read More
Getting to know AI

May 8, 2025  |  My Take

I needed to write this blog post about AI in the textile industry, since it’s the subject of our features this month, but I’m a complete neophyte, plain and simple. I know some basics about this topic, but little else, so I did the logical thing and asked Chat GPT a few questions about the texti…
Read More
Finding fibers and fabrics in unlikely places

April 24, 2025  |  My Take

Ever since I first got involved with the textile industry, I’ve puzzled over composites. As a Specialty Fabrics Review editor, we typically covered flexible composites, but not rigid composites. It was our perception that few of our members and readers were involved in this market area. It was als…
Read More
Simple—or not

March 10, 2025  |  My Take

Among songwriters in Nashville, they used to say, “Keep it simple, stupid.” Writing a really good country song may appear to be simple, but sometimes the simpler the idea, the more difficult it is to say something fresh and new, and solving that is … well, simply in the details.
Read More