Laurie Carlson Steger, who grew up in central Massachusetts, learned to weave and sew as a child. She earned a BFA in Textile Design and and MFA in Artisanry/Fibers from The University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth.

Her parents were craftsmen of fine enamel jewelry.  Over the forty five year span of the product, the jewelry was known as "Crafts by Inga", "Inga Enamels" and "Enamels by the Carlsons".  With an artistic mother and an engineer father, the jewelry business became very popular, and needed the help of all of the Carlson children to grow and meet the demand for production.   In her teen years, Ms.Carlson Steger worked the kiln process of the enamel business.  The firing technique used a scrolling tool to draw the design onto the molten glass and copper pieces.  When the scroll tool was pulled from the kiln,  a thin glass string often stayed attached.  This is the rudimentary technique to the development of fiber optic strands.    

Ms. Steger works and contemplates from her home studio in South Dartmouth, MA.