Introducing 12 Days in the Winter Woods: A Wild Ridge Studio Art Advent Collection
Every once in a while, I see an idea that immediately makes me wonder what it would look like if I did it my way. That’s exactly what happened when I came across an art Advent calendar.
The original idea centered around art supplies, but that wasn’t what interested me. I kept thinking about the artwork itself. What if instead of opening supplies for twelve days, you opened actual pieces of art? What if each package held something made, painted, illustrated, or designed by an independent artist?
And, naturally, what would that look like at Wild Ridge Studio?
That’s how 12 Days in the Winter Woods began.
Twelve Little Pieces of the Wild
The collection is built around the same things that continually show up in my work: mountains, woods, wildlife, botanicals, and those small details I tend to notice while I’m outside.
For this collection, I’m taking all of that into winter.
The artwork moves through evergreens, woodland animals, birds, moons, mushrooms, mountains, ferns, and the quieter landscape of the colder months. Some pieces begin with watercolor. Others begin as digital illustrations or drawings. Two of them begin with actual pieces of wood.
Each box contains twelve individually wrapped surprises. There will be prints, illustrated paper goods, a mini Field Study, and other pieces created specifically for this collection. I’m not revealing every single detail because opening the packages should still be part of the experience.
I can tell you that every collection includes a wooden bookmark and a wooden ornament that I’ll individually hand-burn.
Why Only Twenty?
I decided almost immediately that this needed to be small.
Not artificially scarce. Actually small.
I’m creating the artwork, burning the wooden pieces, preparing the prints, assembling the paper goods, numbering everything, wrapping twelve individual surprises for every box, and packing the finished collections myself.
At twenty collections, that means 240 individually wrapped surprises and forty pieces of pyrography before we even start counting everything else.
Twenty feels right.
It allows me to make something that still feels connected to the actual process of creating art rather than figuring out how to manufacture hundreds of identical boxes.
Each collection will be part of the limited 2026 edition, and once those 20 are claimed, this particular collection will be finished.
An Advent Calendar Without Many Rules
Although I’m calling this an Advent-style collection, I’m not particularly concerned with how you open it.
You could begin December 1 and open one each day for twelve days. You could open one every other day and make it last almost the entire month. You could save everything for the twelve days leading up to Christmas.
Or you could open the box, make yourself a cup of coffee, and immediately tear into all twelve packages.
You bought the art. You make the rules.
What matters to me is the little moment of discovery that happens when you open each one.
Made Slowly at Wild Ridge Studio
The collection is being offered as a preorder because most of it doesn’t exist in finished inventory on shelves.
I’m making it.
Over the next several weeks, I’ll be painting, drawing, burning wood, testing prints, folding paper, signing artwork, and figuring out exactly how twelve little surprises fit beautifully inside one box.
I’ll also be sharing parts of that process here and on social media as the collection takes shape. Some pieces you’ll see before December. Others I’m keeping hidden.
12 Days in the Winter Woods is available now as a limited preorder for $128 + shipping. Only twenty 2026 collections will be made, and finished boxes will ship in November.
It’s a little different from anything I’ve offered before.
Which is probably exactly why I wanted to make it.
