So. Many. Patterns.
Studio Notes Issue 6 | April 23, 2026
Immersion Update
There are only three weeks left until Immersion graduation and I am in that blurry haze of coursework where I cannot decide if I love everything and I am a pattern genius or if I should give up, never quit my day job, and pretend all of this never happened. Dramatic? Perhaps, but I am also starting to make patterns in my sleep.
I really wish I was kidding, but I literally woke up to my alarm one morning having had such a vivid dream about building out a pattern that I:
Couldn't believe what a good idea I had in my sleep.
Couldn't believe that I had not in fact built out said pattern.
Couldn't believe that I literally spent my entire time sleeping "working" and now had to get up to go to my day job and then come home to build out the actual pattern that I dreamed up in my sleep.
🙄
The struggle is real people!
But, bright side. I am making SO. MANY. PATTERNS. Not all of them are good, some of them are quite ugly and not fully realized, but some of them are just darling 🥹. I have probably tested out well over 200 patterns. My thumbnail sketches that I created during my gathering inspiration stage provided a lot of my guidance for what patterns I wanted to create as did all of the lessons in Module 4. When Bonnie taught how to make a tossed pattern, I made a tossed pattern. When she taught about half-drop patterns, I made a half-drop. When she taught about stripes, I made a stripe.
But then the tweaking phase started. Changing colors, moving motifs around, and rebuilding patterns over and over again because I couldn't quite capture the vision I had in my head.
But hour after hour, pattern after pattern, I am finally seeing my collection start to form. I'll be doing a deep dive into the pattern making process in my blog article that comes out next week, so stay tuned for that. And next newsletter, which is GRADUATION WEEK, I'll show you my finalized (ish) collection. I say -ish because I plan on taking a deserved break and will actually finalize the collection for Spoonflower after I evaluate it with fresh eyes post-graduation and some R&R.
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New on the Blog
A mushroom-themed placement print.
Over on the blog, I am continuing my Immersion series. The most recent post is all about taking all of my original artwork and getting it into Adobe Illustrator so that I was ready to start making patterns. Some of my drawings only required a little bit of clean up before I could start using them. Other motifs, like my Columbine flowers, I had to build using different elements that I painted or drew. The big highlight was designing placement pieces as one of the course exercises. A placement print is a standalone design rather than a repeating pattern. You often find placement prints on products like greeting cards, tea towels, gift bags, clothing items or home decor.
This was such a fun exercise to start playing with motifs and composition before really diving into building patterns. You'll have to check out the full article, Digitizing the Work: Immersion Module 3, to see the other two placement pieces I built and to get a look at my full motif library.
In a more business-y post, I also wrote up my Quarter 1 Recap. For 2026, I spent a lot more time planning out my year and my quarterly recaps are one way I am trying to keep myself accountable to those plans this year. A big thing I am doing for 2026 is tracking my hours for the first time. It has been really interesting to finally have data around where I am actually spending my time and seeing how long I actually spend on different tasks. Check it out and let me know what you think.
In the Wild
With patterns on the brain, I have found myself stopping to photograph EVERYTHING this spring, including all of the flowering trees. I think I might have spent 10 minutes documenting flowers on an apple tree on a walk one day. I'm already picturing an apple tree themed wallpaper pattern.
Monthly Recs...
What we're watching: I am continuing my Oscar tour still. I have watched Bugonia (so weird) and One Battle After Another, which I really enjoyed. But I am a sucker for pretty much anything with Leonardo DiCaprio.
What I'm reading: I just finished A Box Full of Darkness by Simone St. James and I loved it. I have read pretty much everything by James and I love her take on the modern ghost story. Her books are creepy, often a bit sad, and just really well done.