The Turquoise Iris Journal
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Go beyond the pages of The Turquoise Iris Journal. Explore artist interviews, creative inspiration, behind-the-scenes stories, studio practices, seasonal ideas, and thoughtful articles celebrating art, creativity, and intentional living. Whether you’re discovering a new artist, exploring a featured volume, or looking for fresh inspiration, you’ll find it here.
Our Latest Online Article
Layering Paint for Rich Autumn Texture: A Mixed Media Technique Guide
Artist and Turquoise Iris Journal curator, Deb Kraska, finds inspiration in the textures, colors, and small details of the natural world. In her mixed media work, layers do more than build a surface. They help tell the story of a place, a season, and the feeling...
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Discover stories, art, and inspiration from artists around the world.
Browse Articles by Category
Creative Practice & Inspiration
Find creative inspiration for artists, including tips to overcome creative blocks, build artistic habits, and develop a meaningful creative practice.
Art Tutorials & Creative Techniques
Explore art tutorials for artists with step-by-step techniques, creative projects, painting ideas, and mixed media inspiration for every skill level.
Creative Business & Artist Entrepreneurship
Learn creative business tips for artists, including selling art, hosting workshops, marketing creative work, and growing a successful art business.
Creative Living, Style & Seasonal Joy
Explore creative lifestyle inspiration with seasonal traditions, style ideas, photography tips, and ways to bring creativity into everyday life.
Home, Decor & Upcycled Living
Discover creative home decor ideas, upcycling projects, and seasonal decorating inspiration that bring creativity, beauty, and handmade charm to your home.
The Journal, Volumes & Community
Explore The Turquoise Iris Journal community with issue previews, artist features, magazine updates, and stories celebrating creativity and connection.
Creative Practice & Inspiration Posts
How to Find Your Artistic Voice and Create Art That Feels Like You
Finding your artistic voice isn’t always about developing a signature style. Sometimes, it begins with paying closer attention to the stories, experiences, materials, and ideas you naturally bring to your work. In this post, The Turquoise Iris Journal curator Deborah...
Art Journal Benefits And Why You Should Start One
Keeping an art journal can be much more than a creative practice. It can become a place to collect ideas, experiment without expectations, work through creative blocks, document your growth, and even process the experiences and emotions that are difficult to put into...
How to Build Creative Confidence (Even If You Doubt Yourself)
On Experimentation, Discovery, and Learning to Trust Your Creative Voice Creative confidence is something many of us wish we had more of. We look at artists, makers, and creatives we admire and assume they must have started with a level of confidence that allowed them...
Art Tutorials & Creative Techniques
Vintage Paper Crafts: 6 Creative Ways to Use Vintage Paper and Ephemera
If you love collecting old book pages, handwritten letters, vintage sheet music, maps, greeting cards, and other forgotten paper treasures, there are countless creative ways to give them a new life. Vintage paper crafts can turn even the smallest scraps of vintage...
Handkerchief Collage on Canvas (A Meaningful Mother’s Day Gift Idea)
Kim White of Switzerland shares this heartfelt and creative tutorial on how a simple handkerchief can become a meaningful piece of art. Inspired by nostalgia, vintage finds, and a touch of serendipity, Kim walks you through creating a handkerchief collage on canvas,...
Making Art With No Drawing and No Painting
An Easy Mixed Media Project Using Thrifted Frames I’m always ready for spring this time of year, but this winter has been especially brutal with polar vortexes, snowstorms, and all-around frozen tundra vibes here in America’s heartland. Two things that reliably get me...
Home, Decor & Upcycled Living
Your Home as a Living Gallery: How to Curate Thrifted Decor & Vintage Finds
I’ve been thrifting my entire life…no exaggeration. Some of my earliest memories are of wandering the aisles of the Salvation Army with my mom, searching for clothes and home decor. By high school, I was hunting for vintage military jackets and bags, 1950s and 1960s...
The Beauty of Reclaimed Materials – What Sustainability Teaches Us About Art
There is a particular kind of beauty that cannot be purchased new. It carries softened edges. It remembers hands. It holds the imprint of time. Reclaimed materials do not arrive pristine. They arrive with a past. A weathered belt that once circled a waist now rests on...
Five Things to Thrift for Fall Décor
The days are growing shorter, the shadows are stretching, and suddenly the air smells faintly of woodsmoke and pumpkin spice. Although I’m a summer sunshine girl through and through (popsicles for dinner, anyone?), I do love the change of seasons. Fall is the perfect...
Creative Business & Artist Entrepreneurship
How to Create an Art Collection That Feels Connected
Learning how to create an art collection doesn't mean making a group of artworks that all look the same. Often, it begins with allowing one piece to lead you toward the next—a color, mark, technique, story, or feeling becoming the thread that connects a larger body of...
How to Get Featured in an Art Magazine: What Editors Really Look For
If you've ever dreamed of seeing your artwork featured in an art magazine, you're not alone. For many artists, being published is more than a milestone—it's an opportunity to share their creative voice, connect with a wider audience, and become part of a larger...
Art Show Magic: Behind the Scenes of a Soulful Booth Setup
Earlier this month, Jim and I packed up for what turned out to be one of our favorite adventures yet—a weeklong trip to Madison, Indiana. Originally, we were headed there for a workshop, with plans to stay and enjoy some much-needed time away. But when the opportunity...
Creative Living, Style & Seasonal Joy
Layering Paint for Rich Autumn Texture: A Mixed Media Technique Guide
Artist and Turquoise Iris Journal curator, Deb Kraska, finds inspiration in the textures, colors, and small details of the natural world. In her mixed media work, layers do more than build a surface. They help tell the story of a place, a season, and the feeling...
More Than a Pattern: Why the Stories Behind Old Quilts Matter
An old quilt holds more than fabric, color, and pattern. It can carry the hands of its maker, the materials and traditions of another time, and the memories of a family across generations. For artist Porsha Chalmers, quilts are an invitation to look beyond style and...
Handkerchief Collage on Canvas (A Meaningful Mother’s Day Gift Idea)
Kim White of Switzerland shares this heartfelt and creative tutorial on how a simple handkerchief can become a meaningful piece of art. Inspired by nostalgia, vintage finds, and a touch of serendipity, Kim walks you through creating a handkerchief collage on canvas,...
The Journal, Volumes & Community
Volume 25: Embody – Meet the Artists in Our Fall 2026 Art Magazine
What does it mean to embody creativity? Maybe it means allowing the things you love to become part of the home you create. Maybe it’s planting one flower and discovering that you want to grow thousands more. Maybe it’s spending decades developing an artistic voice...
14 Contemporary Artists Sharing Their Creative Process and Inspiration
Creativity has a way of bringing people together. It connects strangers through shared stories, transforms ordinary materials into something meaningful, and reminds us that there is no single path to making beautiful work. The Celebrate volume of The Turquoise Iris...
15 Gentle Ways to Find Creative Inspiration When You Feel Stuck
Creative inspiration has a way of showing up when we least expect it, and disappearing just as quickly. If you've ever sat down to create only to feel stuck, distracted, or unsure where to begin, you're in good company. Every artist, maker, writer, and creative...
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