"I made every mistake in the book, and I also made mistakes that weren't in the book," she said. "I was making people who taught me this process scratch their heads."

After 11 years, Cole has perfected the wet collodion process, and she continues to enjoy creating art through photography.

"It's almost like making a sculpture," she said. "It's so tactile. I loved it. I loved the feeling of working with the photographs with my hands rather than clicking a shutter. That felt way too mechanical."