Art &Alchemy
January 2026
What We’re Making:
Blueprints for Becoming
What if your new year began not with resolutions, but with a book you made with your own hands?
This month, we're creating handmade journals - part compass, part confidant - for holding what we're noticing, what we're calling in, and what wants to emerge in the year ahead. Drawing from folk book arts, the field notebooks of explorers, the grimoires of kitchen witches, and the wild scribbles of inventors who thought sideways, we'll create books for our becoming. For notes and nonsense, sketches and spells, for keeping track of what calls and what quiets, for dreaming sideways, mapping what matters, and calling in what's to come.
When We’re Gathering:
Date: Sunday, January 11, 2026
Time: 2:00-3:30pm EST/11:00-12:30pm PST
Duration: 90 minutes
Where: Online
(Zoom link sent at registration)
Cost: Donation based
Creative Lineage: Who’s Inspiring Us
Our project this month draws inspiration from:
Folk book artists who have passed down simple binding techniques for centuries - from medieval monks creating codices to contemporary zine makers democratizing publishing.
Explorer's notebooks like those of Maria Sibylla Merian (who documented metamorphosis), John Muir (whose journals held both sketches and philosophy), and Frida Kahlo (whose diary was equal parts visual art and raw witness).
Kitchen witches and inventors - from historical cunning folk who kept Books of Shadows to modern makers like Lynda Barry and Austin Kleon who teach us that creative notebooks are spaces for thinking, not just recording.
These artists and traditions remind us that a handmade book is an invitation to notice, to wonder, to become.
Making is a Meditation
Our project this month is about creating a container. When we stitch together pages with our own hands, we're making a promise to witness our own becoming - however messy, sideways, or surprising it turns out to be. A handmade journal says: what happens in you matters. Together we'll be...
Practicing
The belief that journals need to be perfect
The idea that new years require rigid resolutions
The habit of documenting only achievements
The myth that creativity requires expensive materials
Unlearning
Beginning with our hands, not our heads
Creating containers for emergence
Honoring that becoming is nonlinear
Making space for what wants to be witnessed
What You’ll Need
The Usual Suspects: Keep these basics on hand for all Art & Alchemy sessions:
Scissors and ruler
Glue stick, white glue, and/or glue gun
Markers, colored pencils, pastels, or crayons
Paper (any kind works)
For This Session
8-12 sheets of paper for pages (printer paper, watercolor paper, old book pages, sheet music, maps - whatever calls to you)
Cardstock or cardboard for covers (cereal boxes, old folders, or greeting cards work beautifully)
Needle and thread or embroidery floss (any color, any thickness)
Ruler and pencil
Optional decorative elements: fabric scraps for covers, ribbon, stamps, pressed flowers, magazine clippings, washi tape
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 filled countless journals - some methodical, some chaotic, all honest. As someone who believes that thinking happens best on paper, she knows the magic of a blank page and the courage it takes to fill it imperfectly. She'll guide you through simple binding techniques that turn ordinary materials into sacred containers for your year.
Megan Rossi creates with Chaparral Made, where every handcrafted piece holds intention. She understands that the books we make with our hands carry different medicine than the ones we buy. She'll show you how to infuse your journal with beauty and meaning from the very first stitch.
You’re inner creative is waiting for you and so are we!
Join Us
What is Art & Alchemy?
A monthly virtual creative gathering where we make art, build community, and remember that creativity isn't reserved for artists; it's a way of being in the world.
Each session includes a lightly guided project that invites reflection, play, and creative courage. Follow our prompt or bring one of your own that's been calling for your attention. Both are welcome.
Upcoming Circles
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February - Constellation Keepers
Sun, 2/22
When was the last time you made something that glows? This month, we're making lanterns. Not the fancy kind — the kind you punch, cut, and fold from paper, then fill with a little bit of LED light. The kind that casts shadows on your walls and reminds you that sometimes the smallest light is enough. We'll draw from traditions that understand this: Polynesian navigators who crossed oceans by starlight, papel picado artists who turn paper into lace, shadow puppeteers who make magic with their hands. Together we'll make vessels that hold a little light, and take time to remember that we don’t always need floodlights to find our way. Sometimes a pinhole is enough to navigate by.