A Year of Making, Becoming, and Beginning Again — An Artist Studio Reflection

TRANQUIL • LUMINOUS • ROOTED

Stories from the studio, reflections on process, and the art of the handmade.

An Artist Studio Reflection on a Year of Growth

As winter settles over the mountains and the year begins its gentle closing, I find myself returning to the rhythms and traditions that anchor this season. There’s a natural slowing that invites reflection—on what was built, what was learned, and what has begun slowly taking shape for the year ahead.

Before stepping into a new chapter, I wanted to gather a few thoughts from my workbench and share a glimpse into the year that has unfolded in my studio. This post is an artist studio reflection on the year—what was made, what was learned, and what is beginning to unfold.

The landscape that continues to shape my work.

Rebuilding My Creative Home Online

One of the most meaningful undertakings of this year was the launch of my new website. Although I’ve created websites in the past, stepping into that process again reminded me how much the digital landscape has changed over the last five years. It has become more layered, more intuitive in some ways and more intricate in others.

Rather than viewing it as a hurdle, I approached it as an extension of my creative practice. Every page, every gallery, every description became its own act of making. What began as a technical project gradually transformed into an artistic one—an opportunity to shape a space where my work could live, breathe, and be discovered with intention.

Opening the Blog: Sharing Process, Tools, and Stories

Another new thread this year was opening my blog. It has become a place to share not only what I create, but how and why I create it.

Here I write about the materials that return to my hands again and again, the tools worn smooth with use, and the lessons gathered over years of experimenting and exploring in my studio. I’ve enjoyed connecting with readers who discover my work through these stories—people who arrive through curiosity, technique, or a shared love of the handmade.

Blogging has become more than a platform. It is another way of inviting others into the creative rhythm of what shapes my days.

In a digital world that moves fast and favors the fleeting, it’s easy to believe that blogging has been replaced by social media—that slower storytelling no longer has a place. But for artists, a blog offers something the scroll rarely does: room to breathe, to reflect, and to share the deeper layers behind the work. Social posts rise and fall in a moment, carried away by shifting algorithms, while a well-crafted blog entry can live for months or years, continuing to find readers who arrive through curiosity, search, or a desire to understand the creative process more fully. Blogging hasn’t lost relevance; it has simply become a space for those who value intention over immediacy, depth over speed, and the kind of connection that lingers long after a post is read.

A Journey Through the Twelve Days of Winter

This year also held the unfolding of my Twelve Days of Winter collection, a project shaped word by word. Each of the twelve themes became a doorway into a different facet of the winter season—color, texture, memory, landscape, and story.

Creating this collection felt like walking through winter with intention. Every piece carried the influence of Northern Idaho’s light and atmosphere, of snow-dusted branches and the rhythm of handmade craft. It was less about producing a series and more about inhabiting a season fully through art.

I’m grateful that the collection found its homes this year. It reaffirmed something I deeply believe: art finds its people in its own time, its own way.

Small Signs of Momentum

In the background of all this making, I noticed gentle shifts—new visitors arriving at my website, more readers spending time with the blog, and renewed interest in pieces that have been patiently waiting for their moment.

These movements may be subtle, but they feel meaningful. They suggest that the work is traveling, being discovered, landing in the hands and hearts of those who connect with it.

And in the often unpredictable digital world, these small signals of connection hold a particular kind of beauty.

Where winter carries its own kind of light.

Looking Toward What’s Emerging

As the new year approaches, I can feel the beginnings of what’s next gathering at the edges—new ideas, early sketches, and threads of inspiration that surfaced while creating the winter collection. A new body of work is slowly taking shape in my studio, forming in its earliest stages before it has a name, a structure, or a final form.

Winter has always been a favorite season of deeper creativity for me. It offers a kind of inwardness that allows ideas to breathe before they are asked to become anything more. I look forward to sharing these emerging pieces in the months to come, once they begin to reveal themselves more fully.

A winter road opening to what comes next

Closing Thoughts

As I reflect on this year of building, renewing, learning, and creating, I feel immense gratitude—for the readers who visit my blog, for those who follow my work, and for the community that continues to grow around the handmade.

Thank you for being part of this evolving creative life.

May the New Year bring possibility, clarity, and beauty—and may it be surrounded by art, by creativity, and by moments that feel restorative and true.

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