The Liminal - Cold Moon Cycle - November 2025
THE LIMINAL — NOV 20, 2025 SEVENTH ISSUE • THE COLD MOON
by Richard W. Saunders
Drops with each New Moon • published in concert with our Fortnight Calendar
Look Out For: Late-season apples & pears, Brussels sprouts, kale, collards, Swiss chard, carrots, parsnips, turnips, rutabagas, winter squash, beets, leeks, onions, garlic, cranberries, persimmons, chestnuts, late asters, goldenrod, frost-hardened grasses, migrating geese, cardinals, chickadees, blue jays, squirrels, raccoons, opossums, foxes, early snow flurries, cloudy skies, frosts, rosemary, thyme, sage, winter wheat, holly berries, and pine cones!
Look Up For: The November 20 new moon ushers in a long stretch of dark skies, perfect for observing faint constellations and the first glimpses of winter stars. The Full Cold Moon rises on December 4, casting a silver glow over late-fall landscapes. Watch the Geminid Meteor Shower peak on December 13–14, with up to 120 meteors per hour (in ideal conditions) streaking across the night sky. Now, as daylight wanes further, we are squarely in the domain of shadows, leading us to the brink of the winter solstice.
THE COLD MOON CYCLE → 11/20 🌑 11/28 🌓 12/04 🌕 12/11 🌗 12/19 🌑 ... NEXT: THE WOLF MOON
THE FOX & THISTLE LIMINAL
A MONTHLY CREATIVE ALMANAC WEAVING TOGETHER ART, EXPRESSION, AND REFLECTIONS
INSIDE THIS ISSUE:
DESIGN STUDIO • Toulouse Lautrec • Iranian Ibex • Swedish Petroglyph • Baroque Death • Upcycled Wurlitzer Piano Bar • 2026 Fortnight Calendar • Masquerade Persona Masks • Scrabble & Shade Art • Breakup Cards
VINTAGE CURIOSITIES • Art Nouveau Print • Japanese Katagami • Israeli Hanukkah Oil Lamp • Poinsettia Glassware • MCM Brass Stocking Hooks • German Weinreise Glasses • Brass Post Office Box Door • Marbled MCM Rocks Glasses • West Bend Penguin Server • Greek Ceramic Wall Art • Tortoise & Serpent Relief • Tibetan Prayer Wheel • Mexican Christmas Painting • Nautilus Shell
BLOG FODDER • Poem on Excess • Candied Sweet Potatoes • Eggnog
& a few complimentary delights hidden inside this issue...
As a thank you to our subscribers, use the code below for 10% off your entire order during Thanksgiving:
HENHOUSE10
Valid during the customary Thanksgiving travel window, Wednesday through Sunday.
Holiday Gifting Guide 2025
STUDIO CATALOG
Our studio is an eclectic mix of original designs, handmade goods, & vintage merchandise.
Each placard has a home on our site—follow any to see where the trail leads.
YULETIDE PLAYLIST on Spotify
Over 12 hours of festive tunes!
Fox & Thistle Studio has spent most of a decade compiling this wide variety of holiday music. Did you know?
Spotify recently updated its rules so that even free accounts can now play full playlists!
Follow, listen, & share with your friends & family!
FROM THE DESIGN STUDIO
On a hilltop overlooking Verdelais, France, is the tomb of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. In the bottom corner sits a quick, unmistakable caricature that captures his spirit in only a few lines. Our design takes its cue from that engraving, keeping the contours plain and unembellished. It offers a gentle nod to the artist’s distinct hand and his ability to capture the mood of Parisian nightlife through his signature swishes and gestures.
A ceramic jar was unearthed in present-day Iran and dated to around six thousand years ago. Painted on it was an ibex by an early artisan. Its great curved horns—now thought to represent the cycles of moon and seasons—mark it as a symbol of renewal, protection, and endurance. The creature roamed rugged hills and sparse steppes, embodying vitality and resilience. This simple charcoal reproduction pays tribute to the graceful archaeological heritage known from that region.
The Vitlycke bridal couple is a 3,000-year-old rock carving that portrays a man and woman standing close together, perhaps captured in a sacred wedding rite. Set within the UNESCO Tanum World Heritage area of Sweden, these figures join a vast Bronze Age tapestry of petroglyphs depicting hunting, sailing, farming, war, and acts of devotion. The couple embodies the ceremonial rhythms of life and the enduring human desire to mark union and continuity—an intimate, fleeting moment preserved in stone.
This design draws on an 18th-century plaster sculptures by Johann Georg Leinberger, perched on the ceiling of the Holy Grave Chapel in Michaelsberg Abbey, Bamberg, Germany. The skeletal figure, pen poised, evokes the timeless meditation on mortality and the futile act of record keeping. In its quiet vigilance, it inscribes the passage of life itself, a reminder that endings are inseparable from beginnings. Its unflinching, focused gaze lingers—beautiful, macabre, and steeped in Baroque contemplation.
Upcycled 1940's Wurlitzer Piano Bar
A Fox & Thistle Studio Original, this 1940s Wurlitzer upright came out of a Sears, Roebuck bungalow outside of Washington, D.C., and has been reimagined into something new without erasing what it was. The iron harp was lifted out and the old lacquered panels found a second purpose as a frame for a reclaimed mirror. Hidden LEDs lend a soft, atmospheric, and programmable glow reminiscent of stage lights.
A glassware shelf fashioned from the keyboard cover is removable for cleaning the mirror behind it, as is the eighteen-bottle wine rack. The elm bartop—which also lifts off for transport—came from a neighborhood tree brought down in a storm, its wood seasoned for years before being shaped to fit the piano’s remaining bones, and it stands now as something transformed yet unmistakably itself.
In the year ahead, let yourself return to an analog mindset—allow the world to be quiet again, tactile and unhurried.
Imagine the year as a map—less about what’s ahead and more about where you find yourself within it.
It offers directions, landmarks, and narrative—all at once.
Notice nesting birds, meteor showers, clover in bloom, cicadas chattering, fish on the move, garden rhythms, and the countless small surprises tucked in between the seasons.
A practical tool that invites imagination, reflection, and a deeper kinship with the year unfolding around you.
A free downloadable version is available—feel free to keep it, print it, or pass it along.
Did you know? This newsletter follows the drifting rhythm of the moon across our FORTNIGHT CALENDAR.
PERSONA MASQUERADE MASKS
In many cultures, masks have been regarded as objects of power. Somewhere along the way, persona inverted its meaning—no longer the mask we show, but the person underneath. Through many forms—transition, change, and resistance—unfolds a quiet rhythm traced across art, nature, and lore. What is poison to one may be medicine to another.
Cycles of Wholeness & Burden
Binders of Friend & Foe
Movement & Change
Revelation & Incineration
Turning from the masks we wear to the words we dare…
SCRABBLE & SHADE
A collection of framed phrases that say what others only think. Each piece delivers honesty with style and a little bit of shade.
There is always such an emphasis on being together for the holidays… we find that view blindly optimistic. Perhaps this season could be genuinely better if left alone? Explore our series of break-up cards:
OFFHAND CARDS FOR COMMON Situations
To be a fool at the right time is an art.
Each day is better than the next.
It’s never too late to be the person you could have been.
May the bridges I burn light the way.
Count the stars without me.
Fox & Thistle Studio’s line of correspondence cards walk a fine line— offering solace to the giver—and clarity, confrontation, or something in between to the recipient. Read more about the background of this original line of greeting cards in our blog post:
Goodbyes, Asides, & Otherwise
More studio offerings from irreverent hairbands, bandanas, 16th-century woodcuts…
www.foxandthistle.studio
Post Office box doors were once silent sentinels of letters, coins, and the small practical rituals of daily American life. In the 1970s and 1980s, as post offices modernized, they were salvaged and reborn as coin banks – vessels of memory and quiet vigilance. Tempered glass, intricate gears, and detailed brass, forged for precision and security, bore quiet witness to decades of daily use. These functional doors now stand as a miniature monument to civic diligence, an enduring relic of stately craftsmanship.
BRASS HANUKKAH OIL LAMP
Israel Museum Reproduction
In Jewish tradition, the Hanukkah lamp carries the story of courage and perseverance. Each night, a new flame is kindled to recall the miracle of the oil that burned for eight days in the rededicated Temple of Jerusalem. The lamp often bears motifs honoring the Maccabees, the Jewish warriors whose devotion and bravery restored the Temple and defended their people, symbols of resilience and the fight for religious freedom. As the flames rise, the Hanukkiah becomes a beacon of steadfast faith, rooted in heritage and hope, illuminating home and community in enduring remembrance.
SIGNED MEXICAN CHRISTMAS FESTIVAL PAINTING
In the Central American Catholic tradition, Las Posadas marks the nine nights before Christmas, recalling Mary and Joseph’s search for shelter in Bethlehem before the birth of Jesus. Communities reenact this pilgrimage, moving from house to house, singing, and seeking welcome. Noche Buena, or Christmas Eve, brings the journey to its culmination: families gather for midnight Mass and celebration, honoring the birth of Jesus with feasting, music, and ritual. Together, these observances unite home, community, and faith in luminous observance.
KATAGAMI – HANDCUT JAPANESE PAPER STENCIL
Katagami is a revered Edo-period craft of hand-cut stencils made from layered washi strengthened with persimmon tannin. Each is carved with patient, almost meditative precision, its patterns—waves, blossoms, clouds, and symbols—echoing the quiet poetry of the age. Though originally created for use in Japanese fabric dyeing, katagami stencils have long been treasured in their own right: delicate works of paper engineering that capture the discipline, grace, and finely tuned artistry of their makers.
“BRITA AS IDUNA” FRAMED PRINT – ART NOUVEAU, 1901
This art nouveau print draws on the Norse myth of IÐUNN, keeper of the apples of immortality. In the old tales, her golden fruit preserves the gods’ youth, and her absence brings the world to the brink of ruin. She embodies renewal, continuity, and the fragile balance that holds creation steady. The figure shown here—the artist’s daughter—echoes that quiet power: youthful, luminous, and holding the delicate gift upon which depends, according to old Scandinavian cosmology, the fate of gods, humans, and the worlds between.
First traced by ancient mathematicians and later echoed in art, science, and design, the GOLDEN RATIO is a subtle harmony woven through the natural world—a mathematical whisper found in the micro spirals of nautilus shells, the lifesize unfurling of ferns, the arrangement of sunflower seeds, and outward to the macro curve of countless galaxies. This repeating pattern is a bridge between nature, mathematics, and aesthetic wonder. The ratio evokes balance and rhythm, suggesting a hidden order underlying life’s complexity, a quiet reminder that harmony and mystery are often inseparable in the world around us.
Hothouse Flowers
Highlights From Our Vintage Bazaar
Spirited Essentials for the Home Bar Enthusiast
Tuscany Harvest Goblets
German Weinreise Glasses
Poinsettia Holiday Glasses
MCM Double Rocks Glasses
Hand-Blown Coupe Glasses
West Bend Hot/Cold Penguin Server
Emile Henry Ceramic Fondue Pot
Hand-painted Pennsylvania Dutch Recipe Box
Cousances 6" Enameled Skillet
1940s Watt Stoneware Casserole Dish with Lid
Clay Relief Floral Fish Bowl
Bolivian Wood Carving
African Savanna Scene Marquetry
Greek Ceramic Tile Art
Tortoise & Serpent Relief
Audels Carpenters and Builders Guide Set
Vera Bradley Purses
MCM Brass Stocking Hooks
13 oz. Seaglass
Tibetan Mani Prayer Wheel
From our blog — IMPETUS INACTION
At the onset of this season of excess, a stanza on the kind of cup that never quite gets filled:
too much in the shadow, too much in the light
too much in the wrong, too much in the right
too much in the shallows, too much in the deep
too much in the weeds, too much in my sleep
too much in forgiveness, too much in my dread
too much in the stillness, too much in my head
Read the full poem, Who’s Man’s is Dis? in the VERSES section of our blog, IMPETUS INACTION
Please take a moment to close your eyes & picture one of your favorite humans— we’d love to know them too. No praise is finer than that which is passed along by our readers!
KETTLE & CRUMB
Simple, seasonal recipes — tried & true, from Fox & Thistle’s kitchen.
PREPARATIONS FOR SHORT DAYS & LONG NIGHTS - HOLIDAY EDITION
CANDIED SWEET POTATOES
PREP 20 min. COOK 1 hr TOTAL 1 hr 20 min. SERVES 8-10 TEMP 375 °F
A deliciously aromatic take on a cold-weather classic: sweet potatoes baked in a buttery, maple-vanilla glaze with warming spices, finished with a hint of rosemary and sea salt for a subtle herbal note.
• 3-4 lbs sweet potatoes • 1/2 tsp salt • 1/2 c. unsalted butter • 2 Tbsp orange juice • 1/4 c. maple syrup • 1 c. packed brown sugar • 3/4 tsp cinnamon • 1/2 tsp nutmeg • 1/2 tsp ginger • 1 tsp vanilla extract *garnish with chopped rosemary and sea salt
Preheat oven to 375 °F 2. Peel & slice sweet potatoes 1/2" thick. Place into large greased casserole dish 3. Slice butter into medium saucepan and add orange juice, maple syrup, brown sugar, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger over medium heat until butter is melted. Bring to a gentle boil and do not stir for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla extract. 4. Pour over sweets and toss to coat. 5. Bake 1 hour stirring every 20 mins. After first 20 minutes, cover with foil. 6. Garnish with rosemary and sea salt and let stand at least 10 minutes before serving.
EARLY AMERICAN EGGNOG
MAKES ABOUT 10 CUPS
A timeless festive treat, brought from Old England, velvety and smooth, with just enough spice to hint at holiday mischief. Best enjoyed by hearth and candlelight.
• 6 egg yolks, separated • 1/2 c. sugar • 2 c. whipping cream • 1 c. milk • 1/4 c. bourbon • 1/4 c. brandy • 1/4 c. white rum • ground nutmeg
1. Beat the egg yolks with sugar til thick and frothy 2. Slowly add the cream, milk, and spirits 3. Chill 4. Sprinkle with nutmeg and serve.
Sign up to receive this newsletter, THE LIMINAL to your email inbox on the NEW MOON of each month. Go to www.foxandthistle.studio to stay tuned!
WE WANT YOUR FEEDBACK! Is there a part of THE LIMINAL that resonated with you? Or perhaps that missed the mark? Do you have a suggestion for a new section? As we travel on this creative journey, we are constantly tweaking, rearranging, adding, and refining our content. We’d love to hear your thoughts!
Fox & Thistle Studio seamlessly blends curiosity, creativity, and sustainability. Rooted in the idea that simplicity speaks volumes, our essence is embodied in the paradoxical, insightful, and endlessly playful nature of finding and creating.
THE FOX & THISTLE LIMINAL — IS A PRODUCTION OF GRIEFNGRAVY PRESS
contact@foxandthistle.studio
THE LIMINAL • COLD MOON CYCLE • NOV 20, 2025
Richard W. Saunders
