The Experiences Behind the Art at Carrot Top Studio
Every once in a while, someone asks how I come up with the ideas for Carrot Top Studio.
The short answer is that I’ve been gathering them for a very long time.
Long before I was designing clergy stoles, I studied art education at Penn State and spent years teaching art. I taught in classrooms in Chicago, Houston, Pittsburgh, and Detroit, working with students of different ages and learning how to take a big idea and make it visual, understandable, and interesting.
In the beginning, I didn't understand that those skills would eventually become such an important part of Carrot Top Studio.
I Was an Art Teacher First
Teaching art isn't simply about showing someone how to draw or mix paint. A good art lesson begins with a question: What do I want someone to notice, understand, or remember?
I still ask that question.
When I'm designing a clergy stole around a scripture passage, creating a printable resource for a confirmation class, or illustrating a simple blessing, I'm thinking about how an image can help communicate an idea.
I've often said that symbols are sticky. We may forget the exact words we heard, but an image can stay with us.
My years in the classroom taught me to trust that.
I've Spent Years Looking at Art
Being an artist also means being a lifelong student.
Museums are some of my favorite places to spend a day. Libraries are dangerous places for me to wander if I have somewhere else to be. I notice stained glass, tile floors, carved doors, textiles, old churches, gardens, and architectural details.
Travel has added another layer. Standing inside a cathedral or in front of a painting I've previously only seen in a book reminds me that artists have been helping people tell stories about faith for centuries.
I'm not interested in simply copying what has come before. I'm interested in learning from it.
Why did that symbol endure? Why does that color catch my attention? Why does one composition feel peaceful while another feels full of movement?
All of that looking eventually finds its way back to the studio.
I Know the Church Has Its Own Visual Language
More than twenty years of creating for churches has taught me that liturgical art has a particular job to do.
Color means something. Symbols carry history. The seasons of the church year each have their own stories and rhythms. And something created for worship needs to serve the worship rather than simply decorate the room.
That distinction matters to me.
When I design an Advent stole, I'm not simply making something purple and pretty. I'm thinking about waiting and expectation. At Pentecost, I'm considering movement, breath, wind, and fire. During Ordinary Time, I return again and again to images of growth, water, creation, and faithful everyday living.
The art needs to help tell the story.
And I Know How to Make Things
There is another kind of knowledge that comes only through your hands.
After years of working with fabric, I know that a beautiful piece of cloth doesn't necessarily make a beautiful stole.
Scale matters. Weight matters. How a fabric drapes matters. A design that looks wonderful lying flat on my worktable has to work when it's hanging from someone's shoulders. Some of that can be taught. Some of it comes from making hundreds of stoles, getting things wrong occasionally, trying again, and paying attention to what works.
That's part of being an artist, too.
Curiosity May Be the Most Important Part
For all those years of experience, I hope I never reach the point where I think I know everything I need to know. I'm still curious. I still pull books off library shelves because a cover catches my eye. I still stop to photograph an interesting pattern in a sidewalk. I still stand too long in front of paintings. I still bring fabric home without knowing exactly what it will become. And I still get excited when an idea that has been floating around in my head finally works on the studio table.
Maybe that's what I bring to Carrot Top Studio more than anything else: years of experience paired with a willingness to keep noticing and learning.
Art teacher. Artist. Maker. Museum wanderer. Symbol collector. Person who looks at a piece of fabric and wonders what story it might tell.
After all these years, I'm still looking.
And I'm very glad I get to share some of what I find with you. 🧡
Come Take a Look Around
If you’re curious to see where all that noticing, learning, fabric, and storytelling leads, I’d love for you to explore Carrot Top Studio. You’ll find story-rich clergy stoles, meaningful art, creative faith resources, and plenty of little things designed to help us notice, wonder, and remember. Come take a look around, you might find something that speaks to your story, too. 🧡
