This palette is close to my heart.
On the surface, it’s nine handmade watercolors, and they’re all granulating.
But what I really made was movement.
These colors do what life does.
They shift. They separate. They refuse to behave in one clean predictable way. You add water, and suddenly they have opinions. And then they dry and look completely different than they did five minutes ago, which is honestly a little rude, but also exactly the point.
Because life is like that too.
Life isn’t one straight line. It’s more like a pile of layers. Some days soft, some days sharp. Some days you think you’re fine, and then one small thing happens and your whole system reacts like it just got personally offended.
There are cracks. There are detours. There are stretches that feel messy and uncertain and painful, and sometimes even unbearable. And I know that sounds heavy, but I also believe that’s where depth comes from. That’s where things start to matter. That’s where we become real.
Without the uneven edges, nothing would touch us in the same way.
And the real beauty, I think, lives in the places where we stop pretending. Where we admit we’re human. Where we let someone see us, and they don’t back away. The people who stay close. The ones who don’t fix, but simply stay.
When I made this palette, it hit me again how we’re never the only ones carrying something heavy, even when it feels like it. Most people are walking around with invisible weight, doing their best, and trying not to spill it everywhere.
Maybe that’s what makes life bearable.
That quiet knowing that we are never fully alone in the rough and tangled parts.
The colors
#372 Compassion
The kind of kindness that changes someone’s day without making a big show of it. The quiet type that still counts.
#373 Courage
Not fearless. More like… doing it anyway. Sweaty palms, racing thoughts, still moving forward.
#374 Belonging
That rare feeling of not having to earn your place. You’re allowed to show up as you are.
#375 Wisdom
Usually delivered through mistakes, scars, and very educational regrets. Depth you didn’t ask for, but now you have it.
#376 Hope
A small bright thing. Not a loud one. The kind of hope that survives because it refuses to disappear, even when it should.
#377 Tender
The soft places. The moments where you don’t armor up. Where you stay open, even though you could shut down.
#378 Freedom
Wide horizons. A deep breath. That feeling of stepping out of old patterns and realizing you don’t have to live that way anymore.
#379 Gratitude
The shift that happens when you suddenly see what is already here. The quiet richness you forgot to notice.
#380 Unity
Not sameness. Not agreement. More like… we’re in this together. Even when we’re different. Even when it’s hard.
So yes. This palette is about connection.
About how we carry one another. How we soften each other’s lives. How meaning is often created in the smallest, most ordinary moments, the ones nobody claps for.
I hope you feel the same joy using these colors that I felt making them, thinking of you, and thinking of that sense of “us” behind it all.
Much love,
Mette
