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The Year in Color … so far

January began with the Always Colors, which, by the very nature of its name, are always here, and they also seem particularly well suited to January. Gorgeous grays and silvers shimmer and sparkle like frost on windows, newly fallen snow and the winter ocean in a month when nearly everything outside seems to have been reduced to silver, white and blue. Having a collection of colors that I always make also gave me something else: time. While January belonged to the Always Colors, I was busy putting together the palette for the year ahead, choosing glass, making samples, seeing what worked, changing my mind, making more samples, naming colors and getting ready for an idea that I hoped would give the year a little structure while leaving plenty of room for creativity: a new Color Drop every single week!

And it was fun. I thoroughly enjoyed the structure, the challenge, and all the creativity that came along with it. It was also, as it turns out, a rather ambitious undertaking for one person.

From Quiet Blush, the first Color Drop in February, through Holding Summer last week, I made and released 30 different colors and seeing them all together now is pretty spectacular. There are colors that surprised me, colors that disappeared quickly, colors that came directly from the islandscape around me and others that came from a person, a memory or simply putting one color of glass next to another and wondering what might happen.

So this week, instead of adding color #31, I'm pausing for a moment to look back. The 2026 Color Series now holds the whole story of the year so far. I've organized it by month so you can follow the colors in order, revisit an old favorite, or wander through and see which one catches your eye.

About that color a week idea...

One of the more interesting things I've learned from making a new color every week is that making the color isn't actually the hard part.  The glass I can do and the jewelry I can make. It's everything that happens after the jewelry is made; everything that turns a new color into a color drop. There is inventory to organize and count, photographs to take and edit, products to put onto the website, pages to build, color stories to write, newsletters to create and all the other small things involved in running a business that have absolutely no interest in disappearing simply because I decided there should be a new color every Wednesday.

And there is only one of me.

Beginning in September, Color Drops are moving to every other week, a rhythm that already feels a little more spacious. It gives each new color time to have its moment, gives you more time to wander through the stories and the jewelry, and gives me more time for all the other things I want to make, write, explore and inevitably get distracted by along the way. There will still be plenty of color coming, just at a pace that leaves a little more room for everything else.

The part I didn't expect

Something else happened while I was busy making all these colors: I fell in love with writing again. The Color Drops started as a way to introduce new glass and jewelry, and somewhere along the way they became an excuse to write about my life, people I’ve met, places I’ve been, things I’ve done and things I’ve noticed and whatever else happened to wander across my path that week. Writing the color stories has made me pay closer attention to the world around me and it has opened up an entirely different way for me to be creative, which was not something I expected when I decided to make a new color every week.

I'm incredibly grateful for the replies, the conversations, the orders and especially hearing when a particular story or color has stayed with someone. What began as a business idea has become one of my favorite ways to connect with you.

And the truth is I really love running a business. I like the making, and I also like the figuring out, organizing, photographing, writing, experimenting and occasionally realizing that something I thought was a brilliant idea needs a slight adjustment.

I've said for years that one of my favorite things about working for myself is that there is always something that needs to be done, and somewhere in that enormous collection of things there is always something I actually want to do. I can truthfully say that in the 26 years I’ve been doing my own thing, I have never not wanted to do something, which contrasts rather spectacularly with my brief stint in corporate America, when I regularly devoted a surprising amount of creativity to thinking of reasons I shouldn't have to go into work. Apparently, I was never opposed to work; I just wanted to choose the work.

And after 26 years, I still get to choose, including choosing when one of my ideas has gotten a little carried away. Color Drops aren't going anywhere; they're simply moving to every other week, leaving a little more room for the colors, the stories and whatever else I haven't thought of yet. And judging by the first 8 months of 2026, I'm fairly certain I'll think of something.

In the meantime, there are 30 colors waiting for you in the color archive.

Wander Through the 2026 Color Series →

WindHorse Arts store and studio are on stolen land of the Wabanaki people, a place currently recognized as Vinalhaven, Maine, nestled in the serene beauty of Penobscot’s Bay. I am grateful to steward this sacred land, honoring its deep roots and rich histories.

Handmade in Vinalhaven, Maine

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