Compendium: the Liminal
A keyhole view into the studio practice
This is the behind-the-curtain space for Fox & Thistle Studio.
Process notes, experiments, and the thinking behind the studio’s creative almanac. The same practice that produces the Liminal, the Fortnight Calendar, and the objects on the studio site.
Subscribing here does two things:
You receive occasional studio process writing directly in your inbox.
You are also added to the list for the Liminal itself — the seasonal creative almanac published with each new moon. Those announcements arrive separately and always point you to the full designed issue on the website.
The finished issues, calendar downloads, and limited editions live at foxandthistle.studio.
This space is for the work in progress. The process writing you receive here feeds the seasonal almanac described below.
What the Liminal contains:
Here are some of the sections that are regularly written into rotation:
Seasonal awareness - A monthly highlight on what is twinkling overhead, sprouting underfoot, and otherwise expanding and contracting.
Historical portraits - Quiet tribute to the minds, hands, and work that have changed the ways that we move through the world.
Recipes with roots - Seasonal food with whole simple ingredients, tried & true.
Creative experiments - Ongoing endeavor to explore symbol, myth, and meaning.
Studio notes - Vintage finds, upcycling projects, and our shifting inspirations.
Poetry & reflection - Writings on life, change, and living in between.
THE FORTNIGHT CALENDAR CONNECTION:
The Liminal is published in concert with our Fortnight Calendar—a lunar-based calendar system that reimagines how we track time. The calendar maps the year through two-week intervals.
Notice how the moon gracefully drifts across the sky in this structure. You can almost sense the earth’s tilted course through the seasons. Can you feel the year beginning to breathe?
Useful for gardening, stargazing, creative pursuits, lesson planning, travel, and anyone interested in slow living, the calendar is a temporal spine; the almanac is a narrative pulse.
Together, they offer a framework for anyone curious about living in sync with an older rhythm that’s perhaps been gone, if not quite forgotten.
The calendar is free to download for any and all who might get some good use out of it. Feel free to print it, write on it, and share it!
It is also for sale as a 24”x 36” poster size on mat paper, with more room for taking notes.
See the 2026 ‘Warm Arc’ Fortnight Calendar
HOW TO FOLLOW:
Process notes arrive here thru Substack. The Liminal announcements (pointing to the full designed issues) arrive separately via the studio email list.
The Liminal is free and published monthly on the new moon.
ABOUT FOX & THISTLE STUDIO:
The Liminal is produced by Richard W. Saunders through Fox & Thistle Studio in Virginia—a creative practice blending graphic design, vintage curation, furniture upcycling, and writing. The publication itself acts as an accountability engine—
researching content, sourcing vintage and materials for upcycling, building webpages, and making art—all become possible because of the public facing nature of this project.
“The Fortnight Calendar offers something different — a softer, more organic rhythm that invites us to slow down and reconnect with the cycles of light, lunar phases, and seasonal changes that have guided human life for millennia.” — The Paper Nerd
Visit the studio: https://foxandthistle.studio/
Why subscribe?
Subscribe to receive studio process notes here and to be added to the list for the Liminal.
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