Creative Fuel with Anna Brones

Everything you need for a salty girl summer. Hello friends, The tides have been low this week, and a morning swim has required a trek. I prefer to swim at high tide when it feels like you’re in nature’s infinity pool. But these low tide mornings have other perks. Down the boat ramp, onto the slippery, muddy bits, a few pieces of broken shells and barnacles digging into the bottom of your feet. The exposed shore is strewn in sea lettuce, which glows a fluorescent green in the morning sun.

If you don’t have a Made with Artist Intelligence sticker yet, you probably need one. // Summer is the season for night swims. A while back a friend asked if I would be interested in going to Bellingham to see a live production of Phoebe Wahl’s book Little Witch Hazel with her family. I’ve loved Phoebe’s work for a long time and I am not going to turn down a cool art event that a toddler is excited about, so of course I wanted to go. Handmade puppets and set design as well as live music? Yes, please.

It’s the last weekend to sign up for the summer installment of my new analog newsletter Creative Fuel Quarterly! If you’re a paid subscriber, you have a discount code for 20% off the first year. Click here to find it. // It’s salty girl summer season. Hello friends, The summer solstice is tomorrow. I was chatting with a neighbor the other day and she said, “oh no, that means the light is going to start going away.” I laughed.

Thank you to Katherine May for having me on her podcast. // Do you need a must be nice seagull in your life? Hello friends, I finally decided to do it: launch an analog newsletter! Say hello to Creative Fuel Quarterly, a seasonal snail mail subscription. I have been thinking about doing this for a very long time. You may remember a couple of years ago I sent out an experimental analog newsletter. This one: Analog newsletter from three years ago.

Natural dyeing and block printing workshop update: the July 18th one sold out quickly, so we added another one on July 19th. Registration opens at 10am Pacific on Sunday June 7. // Thank you to Keris Fox for asking me all about creativity and MONEY! // And I sat down with Brendan Leonard for a fun interview. // The spiral is the process. Hello friends, My final book draft is due at the end of the month, and I am beginning to feel that intense energy that comes with an impending deadline.

Or: letting birds be birds. Papercut, Anna Brones, 2026 In the shop: night swimming, coffee sunrises, and sunflowers. Hello friends, I’ve spent the last few weeks in an ongoing standoff with the birds, who are hellbent on taking seedlings from the garden. I walk outside to inspect things, and inevitably, there it is: the beginning of new life, chomped off and left behind. Not even the decency to actually eat the thing. This has resulted in an assortment of failed attempts to keep the birds away.

Wildflowers, typewriters, and more. Borage living its best life. That color! In the shop: market vegetables, bracken fern, and a reminder to keep it wild. Hello friends, Remember when I said last weekend that I was craving more analog things? Good news: I finally got to sit down and use my mom’s typewriter. My grandfather brought the typewriter over from Sweden in the 1970s (which I presume was to ensure that it was easy to use the letters å, ä, and ö).

Some new cards dropped this week in the shop. Like a nice coffee sunrise and a night swim // Tacoma+Seattle friends: put July 18th on your calendar. I am collaborating with my friend Christie at Moon Mountain Farm on an in-person workshop that involves the photo above, details and signup coming soon! Hello friends, A couple of weekends ago I went to Tacoma Wayzgooze, an annual community letterpress, printmaking, and book arts extravaganza.

Made with Artist Intelligence stickers are back in stock! Hello friends, I grew up in an abundantly creative household. It was an ideas house. There were no shoulds or musts. A place where you were allowed to be yourself but one that also served as a jumping off point for who you wanted to become. Walls were lined with books and art, handwoven rag rugs covered the floors. My parents had designed and built the house by hand, so not everything was finished.

The shop is back from spring break // Do you need a permission slip this month? Hello friends, A little past 10pm at LAX, and I am wandering around waiting to board a long-haul flight. I’m tired, could very well just settle into a chair, but I’ll be sitting for the next 13 hours. Better use the legs now. I walk around, stretch, and scope out what the other waiting passengers are doing to bide their time.