Posted on September 1, 2025
We LOVE research and learning as a way to get inspired and boost ideas and creativity!! So, Kenzie and I are going to be sharing the inspiration that we collect here in our second newsletter…. once a week!!!
Here’s how it works:
We provide the inspiration. You interpret it however you wish… any medium, any size. It is meant to inspire lettering and floral art combined together. But, you can:
Hope you will create with us and post your work at #wordsandwildflowers2024 and tag @lorisiebert.studio and @snippetsofwhimsy
Quote of the week…
“Thank your body in all ways. It is a highly tuned instrument of ancient, electric brilliance deserving of deep daily love.”
— Victoria Erickson (Author, Edge of Wonder)
Inspirational Artist of the week: Kaffe Fasset
Frank Havrah “Kaffe” Fassett, MBE (born December 7, 1937) is an American-born, British-based artist who is best known for his colourful designs in the decorative arts—needlepoint, patchwork, knitting, painting and ceramics.While still a child, Fassett renamed himself after an Egyptian boy character from the book Boy of the Pyramid by Ruth Fosdick Jones. His name rhymes with ‘safe asset’.
The second of five children, Fassett was born on December 7, 1937, in San Francisco, California,to parents William and Madeleine, who built the successful Nepenthe in Big Sur, California. He is the great-grandson of the wealthy businessman, lawyer and United States Congressman Jacob Sloat Fassett, and it was his great-great grandparents who founded the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento, California. He received a scholarship to the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston at the age of 19, but shortly left school to paint in London and moved there to live in 1964.






Hand lettering inspiration of the week: English Delftware
English Delftware originated in the 16th century when Italian immigrants brought tin-glazing techniques to the Low Countries and then to England, primarily through Antwerp, Belgium. Antwerp potters, such as Jasper Andries and Jacob Jansen, later established production in Norwich, England, around 1567, spreading the craft to London and other centers. Initially known as “galleyware,” the production of tin-glazed earthenware was named “Delftware” after the Dutch city of Delft, a major producer of the style, by the early 18th century.






Posted on August 18, 2025
We LOVE research and learning as a way to get inspired and boost ideas and creativity!! So, Kenzie and I are going to be sharing the inspiration that we collect here in our second newsletter…. once a week!!!
Here’s how it works:
We provide the inspiration. You interpret it however you wish… any medium, any size. It is meant to inspire lettering and floral art combined together. But, you can:
Hope you will create with us and post your work at #wordsandwildflowers2024 and tag @lorisiebert.studio and @snippetsofwhimsy
Quote of the week…
“Instructions for living a life: Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.”
—Mary Oliver
Inspirational artist of the week: Henry Darger
Henry Joseph Darger Jr. April 12, 1892 – April 13, 1973) was an American janitor and hospital worker who became known after his death for his immense body of outsider art—art by self-taught creators outside the mainstream art community.
Darger was raised by his disabled father in Chicago. Frequently in fights, he was put into a charity home as his father’s health declined, and in 1904 was sent to a children’s asylum. He began making escape attempts after his father’s death in 1908, and in 1910 was able to escape, walking much of the way to Chicago. As an adult he did menial jobs for several hospitals, interrupted by a brief stint in the U.S. Army during World War I. He spent much of his life in poverty and in later life was a recluse in his apartment. A devout Catholic, Darger attended Mass multiple times per day and collected religious memorabilia. Retiring in 1963 due to chronic pain, he was moved into a charity nursing home in late 1972, shortly before his death. During this move, his landlord Nathan Lerner discovered his artwork and writings, which he had kept secret over decades of work.
From around 1910 to 1930, Darger wrote the 15,145 page novel In The Realms of the Unreal, centered on a rebellion of child slaves on a fantastical planet. The Vivian Sisters, the seven princesses of Abbeiannia, fight on behalf of the Christian nations against the enslaving Glandelinians. Inspired by the American Civil War and martyrdom stories, it features gruesome descriptions of battles, many ending with the mass killing of rebel children. Between 1912 and 1925, Darger began producing accompanying collages, often only loosely correlated to the book. Later he made watercolors with traced or overpainted figures taken from magazines and children’s books. These grew more elaborate over time, with some of his largest works approaching 10 feet (3 m) in length. Little girls, often in combat, are a primary focus of his work; for unknown reasons, they are frequently depicted naked and exclusively with male genitalia. Other writings by Darger include a roughly 8,000-page unfinished sequel to In The Realms of the Unreal entitled Further Adventures of the Vivian Girls in Chicago, a decade-long daily weather journal, and The History of My Life—consisting of a 206 page autobiography followed by 4,600 pages detailing a fictional tornado named “Sweetie Pie”.
Darger’s work was unknown to others until after his death, leading to his association with the outsider art movement.






Hand lettering artist of the week: Edward Gorey
When Tom Fitzharris met Edward “Ted” Gorey in 1974, the two quickly struck up a friendship. Over the next year Gorey sent a total of fifty letters to Fitzharris. Every envelope Fitzharris received was illustrated by Gorey, and filled with surprises: typewritten letters with news and opinions from Gorey’s life, handwritten note cards with unexpected quotes, sketches, inside jokes, and a host of other joyous miscellany.






Posted on June 13, 2025
Pack your paints – Ireland’s calling!
You’re getting exclusive, early access to a new Art Journaling Ireland creative retreat hosted by my daughter Kenzie!

Consider it the luck of the Irish if you can journal through Ireland with Kenz. (if I’m lucky I’ll get to go too!!) Imagine your next sketchbook filled with watercolor sketches, café scribbles, and the scent of sea air on each page? This new Art Journaling Ireland Retreat with TrovaTrip is your chance to slow down, soak it all in, and create something truly personal.This is a retreat for creative souls who love to wander and want to document every beautiful detail in uniquely creative ways.


Let us break it down for you:
Retreat dates: Mar 16-Mar 21, 2026
(Yes, you will be in Ireland on St. Patrick’s Day!)
This 6 day trip will take you from Dublin to Killarney with 5 included activities, plus art journaling sessions. You’ll go home with a one-of-a-kind travel journal – park sketchbook, part diary, part treasure.
You will enjoy:
• A walking tour of Dublin
• A Guinness Storehouse visit
• A visit to the Cashel Castle
• A scenic tour of the Ring of Kerry on its winding path through the countryside
• An Irish Whiskey and cheese tasting
• Creative sketchbook sessions

Also included:
• Five breakfasts, two dinners
• Double occupancy in 3-star hotels (limited single rooms available)
• All city transfers
• Local, experienced guide


Wanna join?
Spots are limited, and early access means you could be on one of them. There are only 16 available spots AND the first 8 get early bird pricing of $2995 (a $100 savings). To snag one of these early bird spots, all that is needed is a 25% down payment ($749). The remainder can be paid in payments INTEREST FREE with TrovaTrip until 12/16. Payment plans via Affirm are available…more info here:
Posted on January 27, 2025
We LOVE research and learning as a way to get inspired and boost ideas and creativity!! So, Kenzie and I are going to be sharing the inspiration that we collect here in our second newsletter…. once a week!!!
Here’s how it works:
We provide the inspiration. You interpret it however you wish… any medium, any size. It is meant to inspire lettering and floral art combined together. But, you can:
Hope you will create with us and post your work at #wordsandwildflowers2024 and tag @lorisiebert.studio and @snippetsofwhimsy
Quote of the week…
“Every small, unselfish action nudges the world into a better path.”
– Robin Hobb
Inspiration of the week… Károly Reich
Károly Reich (8 August 1922 – 7 September 1988; also written Karoly Reich) was a Hungarian artist, best known for his children’s books illustrations and for his original draughtsmanship. His illustrations were popular among Hungarian children throughout his 40-year career, during which he illustrated around 500 books. He was also a graphic artist and poster designer. His style is child-like, charming, and irresistible. You just have to smile when looking at his pictures.





Hand lettering inspiration of the week… Paul Klee
Paul Klee (German: [paʊ̯l ˈkleː]; 18 December 1879 – 29 June 1940) was a Swiss-born German artist. His highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included expressionism, cubism, and surrealism. Klee was a natural draftsman who experimented with and eventually deeply explored color theory, writing about it extensively; his lectures Writings on Form and Design Theory (Schriften zur Form und Gestaltungslehre), published in English as the Paul Klee Notebooks, are held to be as important for modern art as Leonardo da Vinci’s A Treatise on Painting was for the Renaissance. He and his colleague, Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky, both taught at the Bauhaus school of art, design and architecture in Germany. His works reflect his dry humor and his sometimes childlike perspective, his personal moods and beliefs, and his musicality.



