In February and March of 2000, Lucianne Carmichael visited Penukonda, India, at the invitation of the Young India Project, a non-profit organization founded by Sonja and Narinda Bedi and doing work to improve the lives of rural farmworkers and crafts-people for the past 30 years. She came to work with indigenous potters in a small village of diverse craftspeople such as women textile workers and stone masons, and it was there that she met Marshall Jude, an artisan wood-worker and carpenter. Lucianne told Jude stories of her own plans to invite artists to the woods for restorative residencies and Jude asked if he could come to assist in the building of lodging for the artists. For six months he was in the United States in residence and used his carpenter skills to bring A Studio in the Woods closer to the first official residencies.