The Creative Lessons Inside Every “Failed” Attempt

Wise words to live by.

My husband is a scientist, and he’s always reminding me that the only expectation of your first experiment is experience. The more time I spend creating—especially working with photographs and beeswax—the more I realize how true that is.

A couple of weeks ago, I pulled back the curtain and hosted my very first webinar for my course, The Artistic Image. As excited as I was, the universe seemed determined to test me at every step. A week before the webinar, my entire slide deck disappeared, so I rebuilt it from scratch. Then, the day before, YouTube suddenly refused to allow me to livestream. By the time the event started, I was already exhausted—and ten minutes in, technical issues forced me to abort the whole thing.

I was mortified.

But then the emails started coming in. Kind, generous notes from attendees who understood exactly what it feels like to do something new, scary, and imperfect.

One person wrote:
“Everything that is new and gets you out of your comfort zone has a steep learning curve. You’ve now given us permission to attempt encaustic art, expect failures, and try again.”

And they were right. I couldn’t help thinking back to a blog post I wrote about needing a “Fail Club”—somewhere we celebrate the attempts, not just the outcomes.

Because when someone buys a piece of encaustic photography, they’re not just buying the final artwork. They’re buying the experience behind it—the experiments that went wrong, the techniques refined over time, and the willingness to keep going when things get messy. Encaustic is a medium built on experimentation. You learn by doing. You grow by melting, fusing, layering, and occasionally scraping back everything you just created.

So I picked myself up and scheduled a second webinar that same evening. And that one? It worked beautifully. Ninety-four people joined, asked questions, engaged deeply—and I actually enjoyed myself.

It reminded me just how much courage it takes to learn something new, especially something as hands-on, tactile, and unpredictable as photo encaustic work. If you’re exploring encaustic photography, whether just beginning or refining your voice, expect a learning curve. Expect challenges. But also expect moments of exhilaration when something clicks and the work feels alive.

Stepping outside your comfort zone is where transformation happens—on the panel, and in yourself.

And honestly? It’s worth every “failed” experiment along the way.

Would love to hear from you if you’ve ever felt like it was just too much effort, but did it anyways. Tell me when it worked and when it didn’t. And what you learned from your experiment.

Be well….be creative,

Clare

Learn how photographs, wax, and intuition come together.
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