October 2026:
Befriending the Monster
If you gave it a body, what would it look like?
This month, we're making monsters.
Not the ones under the bed — the ones inside your head. The fear that has a name but no face. The inner critic that knows exactly where to press. The part of you you've been keeping locked up because you weren't sure what would happen if you let it out.
We're giving it a body. Cardboard, fabric, paper, buttons, yarn, whatever's lying around. We're making it ridiculous or magnificent or strange. And then we're sitting with it — because monsters, it turns out, are almost always protecting something.
When We’re Gathering
Date: Sunday, October 11, 2026
Time: 3:00-4:30pm EST/12:00-1:30pm PST
Duration: 90 minutes
Where: Online
(Zoom link sent at registration)
Cost: $20
What We’re Really Reclaiming
Most people don't come for another project; they come for ninety minutes that belong to them.
Some are in a season of transition. Some are reclaiming creativity they set down a long time ago. Some are just reclaiming a Sunday afternoon from everything that wants it.
Come as you are. Leave with something you made and a little more of yourself than you walked in with.
This Month’s Making
Making and conversation go hand in hand. As we weave, twist, and bind our wreaths, we'll also…
Explore
What our monsters are actually made of — fear, grief, old stories, inherited voices
What they might be protecting us from — and whether that protection is still serving us
What changes when we stop running and start looking
Gently Unlearn
That the scary parts of us need to be hidden or conquered
That making something of our fear is frivolous — it is in fact ancient and serious medicine
That our inner critic is the enemy rather than a frightened part of ourselves doing its best
Practice
Building a monster from whatever's around — three dimensional, flat, ridiculous, magnificent, yours
Naming what your monster is made of and what it's been guarding
Sitting with it long enough to ask: what would it mean to befriend this?
Creative Lineage: Who’s Inspiring Us
Our project this month draws inspiration from:
Carl Jung and the Shadow — Jung's concept of the shadow self: the parts of us we exile because we believe they're unacceptable. He believed integration — not elimination — was the path to wholeness.
Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are — the most beloved monster story ever told is really about a child who faces his wildness, befriends it, and comes home.
Japanese Yokai tradition — a rich folklore of spirits and monsters, many of whom are mischievous or frightening but ultimately misunderstood, each one a projection of human fear or longing given form
Mexican Alebrijes — fantastical painted creatures carved from wood or papier-mâché, born from a fever dream, now a celebrated folk art tradition. Proof that monsters can be gorgeous!
Medieval gargoyles — placed on cathedrals not to frighten but to protect. The monster at the threshold, keeping something sacred safe.
Inuit Sedna stories — the Inuit goddess of the sea, whose story is one of transformation through trauma. What was monstrous became the source of all life - imagine monsters as origins, not enemies.
These traditions remind us that giving a monster a form - a face, a body, a name - is one way humans make the unbearable bearable.
What You’ll Need
The Usual Suspects: Keep these basics on hand for all Art & Alchemy sessions:
Scissors
Glue stick, white glue, and/or glue gun
Markers, colored pencils, pastels, or crayons
Paper (any kind works)
For This Session
A body: cardboard, paper bags, toilet paper rolls, old socks, fabric scraps, newspaper — anything that can become a form
Features: buttons, googly eyes, bottle caps, or drawn-on eyes; yarn, string, or fabric for hair; pipe cleaners, twigs, or wire for limbs
Skin and texture: paint, tissue paper, aluminum foil, washi tape, fabric scraps — whatever makes your monster feel like itself
Optional: air-dry clay for sculpting small details; needle and thread if you want to sew; found objects from around the house that feel right
What You’ll Receive: A Zoom link, detailed supply list and inspiration guide will be sent when you register, along with a downloadable guide to our favorite craft products.
Your Co-Hosts
Alice Chen has spent years studying how people make meaning from the materials of their lives. She holds the reflective space for our gatherings — asking the questions that slow us down long enough to hear our own answers. This month, she'll guide us through what it means to turn toward what we've been avoiding — and what we might find when we finally do.
Megan Rossi creates with Chaparral Made, working with natural materials and the quiet power of objects chosen with intention. She knows that making something with your hands changes your relationship to it — and she'll help us build monsters worthy of the befriending.
You’re inner creative is waiting for you. So are we.
Join Us
What is Art & Alchemy?
A monthly VIRTUAL gathering where we make things with our hands with what we’ve got in our homes while tending to what's happening in our hearts.
Each session weaves together a specific creative project with facilitated reflection on questions that project holds. We're about creative practice as a way of staying grounded, reclaiming time for yourself, and being in joyful company with others doing the same.
No experience needed. No talent required. Just you, your hands, and whatever you've got lying around.