I'm always the last one back...

...to homebase, the trailhead, the car. Everyone else has been ready to go for a while. I have been crouched beside the trail, fascinated by a feather, a tiny mushroom, a weathered shell, or I have picked up a Junebug, seen a frog or have heard a bird call and am trying to set eyes on it.

I've spent my whole life tuning into details that other people might walk right by. I've also discovered that the smallest fragments of nature often hold the most extraordinary opportunity for pattern.

I’m Claudia, the eye behind Gridsmith Studio. I’m a photographer and surface pattern designer based in Seattle, and each pattern invites a second look to see what is hidden.

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Looking closely has always been the point.

Gridsmith grew out of a lifelong habit of noticing what’s easy to overlook—the shapes, shadows, textures, and unexpected details hiding in plain sight.

Photography gives me a way to capture them. Pattern gives me a way to take them somewhere new. What begins as something spotted on a walk, in the garden, or out in the world often becomes something entirely different back in the studio.

Look once. Then look again.

Owl eyes become geometry. Bones become rhythm. Familiar pieces of the natural world shift into something entirely unexpected when they're repeated, reflected, and rearranged.I love creating patterns that don't reveal themselves all at once—the kind that draw you in with color and form, then reward a closer look with the discovery of what was hiding there all along.

Discover the Patterns

There’s a method to the curiosity.

Almost every pattern I create holds a small secret.

At first glance, the designs feel abstract—graphic, geometric, almost purely pattern. But look a little longer and something begins to emerge: the curve of a feather, the symmetry of an insect wing, the silhouette of a bird, the branches of a tree. The moment someone discovers it is the moment I love most.

Nature is endlessly generous with beauty, but it doesn’t always announce itself. The most extraordinary things are often the easiest to overlook. My work is an invitation to look again. To follow your curiosity. To let your eyes wander until they discover something unexpected.

There’s a method to the curiosity.

There’s a slightly less obvious side to all of this: I love math. I spent nearly 30 years working with budgets at Fred Hutch, buried in Excel spreadsheets, and apparently all those rows and cells stuck.

I sort bones by shape and size. I turn a year of walking into a hand-colored chart. Even my patterns are built from grids, rows, repetition, and a little bit of math.

There’s something deeply satisfying about bringing order to the chaos.

the curiousity cabinet

One thing usually leads to another.

I tend to collect things, notice odd things, play with my food, and go down rabbit holes. Sometimes they become patterns. Sometimes they become books. Sometimes they become something completely pointless and delightful.

Cedar

My favorite tree: a 100-year-old cedar in our backyard, complete with an owl box and a view of Mt. Rainier.

Bone Collection

Little bones found in owl pellets, sorted into order on a snow day.

Cucumbers

I love Halloween and have also been known to play with my food.

Watercolors

Too many art classes, too little time.

My Studio

My studio is part workspace, part curiosity cabinet, part evidence that I have trouble throwing interesting things away.

Want to see what I’m making, finding, feeding, or obsessing over lately? There’s usually something new taking shape—or something interesting I’ve stopped to look at.

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