december creations

I think of December as a time when (ideally) the intention behind my creative practice shifts from “professional” projects to just-for-fun gifts and festive projects. I had an urge to record my December creations here, and as I was doing that I felt some clarity about the purpose of this studio journal: my “professional” projects (air quotes because sometimes the line between personal / professional is blurry) are generally documented over on my website, but I don’t always keep up with documenting or reflecting on my personal work. Sooo…maybe that’s what this journal is for?

Anyway, apparently even when I have time off, I rest by crafting maniacally. I am truly at my most relaxed when I am making something with my hands, not in a hurry, with low stakes for the finished result. This month I made a lot of gifts, and found myself leaning towards sewing / textile processes. These creations felt indulgently crafty. Typing that made me curious about the actual difference between “art”and “craft,” and I just read one interpretation:

If art focuses on pure self-expression and results in work made to to be engaged with for its own sake, craft has more of an emphasis on making skills and functionality, resulting in work that has a utilitarian purpose. But that doesn’t mean that craft isn’t beautiful to look at or doesn’t provoke thought and engagement and […] highly skilled and innovative craft has just as much vision and self-expression as art. (source)

I guess when making gifts, I often want the end result to have a utilitarian purpose, so in this season I lean more towards craft than usual. It actually feels like a relief to let myself work this way— a little more practical and less conceptual. In my personal practice, it is easier to give myself that space.

I started with some less intense cowboy-vibes embroidery on this vintage shirt:

I used up 0.00001% of my fabric scraps on these slightly over the top patchwork scrunchies, and a lavender scented heating pad:

A thifted baby quilt was sacrificed to make a toddler vest, and made an even smaller matching vest for a toy bunny:

I’m including this screen printed bandana here because I gave it away as a Christmas gift, but I actually made these earlier in the fall as part of a different project:

And of course my annual moon calendar, which I make every year and send out kind of like a Christmas card (as well as selling a print-at-home version in my Etsy shop):

I like when the moon calendar reflects a theme I’ve been exploring throughout the year. Noticing and drawing the chairs I see outside around different neighbourhoods, either left intentionally as a place to sit, or dumped as trash, has been a newfound interest in 2025. There’s something about an out of place kitchen chair on an unlikely patch of grass that really tugs at me. It’s like an invitation to stop and sit for a moment, noticing where you are, something about the private / personal occurring in public places…I think this chair obsession started with the trashy traffic cabinets I designed, and I keep coming back to it. (Hang on, is this year’s moon calendar an example of a craft project [has a practical purpose] that also includes self expression / invites engagement? hmm)

Speaking of utilitarian projects, I also like the feeling of mending as we move into the new year, giving something neglected a fresh life. As you can see I had already done some visible mending on this wool coat in the past, but it had gotten even more threadbare since then:

The coat once belonged to my grandmother, so I feel invested in keeping it functional. I used some beautiful secondhand tapestry wool from my mom to add more mending, basically just doing long stitches in one direction, and then weaving through them in the other directions, working in small sections to cover the damaged areas. A project like this is ideal to bring to social events (like family Christmas dinner LOL) because I can keep my hands busy while still participating in the conversation.

It’s still in progress, but here’s where it’s at now:

I’m noticing that this kind of personal, practical, crafty work is restorative to my creative energy, and gives me time to think (and/or listen to trashy podcasts, which has it’s own value). I feel very lucky to have these couple weeks to slow down a little.