May 2026:
What Deserves the Wall
What if you get to decide what's worthy?
This month, we're making frames by hand — from cardboard, twigs, fabric scraps, beads, paint, glue — and filling them with what's been waiting in drawers.
A child's scribble. A recipe card in your grandmother's handwriting. A pressed leaf from a walk that mattered. A ticket stub. A love note. The photo that keeps getting buried.
Ninety minutes to slow down, make something with your hands, and reclaim a small piece of your own attention. To decide out loud and on purpose that the everyday is already extraordinary, and that you get to say so.
When We’re Gathering
Date: Sunday, May 17, 2026
Time: 2:00-3:30pm EST/11:00-12:30pm 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 choose, mat, and frame the overlooked objects of our everyday lives, we'll also…
Explore
What we've been walking past that deserves to be seen
How the act of framing changes what and how we value things
What it means to be the curator of your own life
Gently Unlearn
That art is what other people make
Waiting for permission to call something meaningful
Letting the good stuff slip past unmarked
Practice
Choosing an overlooked object, image, or momento and giving it a frame
Naming what's meaningful and worthwhile to each of us and sitting with what that declaration feels like
Creative Lineage: Who’s Inspiring Us
Our project this month draws inspiration from:
Marcel Duchamp — the artist who asked what happens when you put an ordinary object on a pedestal and call it art, and changed so much about how we think about what deserves our attention.
Māori tukutuku — intricate lattice panels woven inside meeting houses to honor ancestors and preserve stories.
Little free libraries — the neighborhood boxes that declare every block worthy of a literary life.
Victorian pressed flower keeping — women who made art from walks and gardens, preserving the everyday in journals and frames as a quiet practice of saying: this moment mattered.
These artists and traditions remind us that the act of framing something is itself a declaration that says: this matters and is worth seeing.
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
Something to frame: a photo, letter, ticket stub, recipe card, child's drawing, fabric scrap, pressed leaf, journal page — anything that carries meaning for you
A frame: thrifted, dollar store, repurposed, or made from cardboard — any size, any condition
Mat material: cardstock, watercolor paper, scrapbook paper, kraft paper, or even pages from an old book
Cutting tools: scissors or a craft knife for clean mat edges
Optional: washi tape, paint, stamps, or decorative paper to embellish your frame or mat
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 practice curation as a form of self-knowledge and self-respect.
Megan Rossi creates with Chaparral Made, working with natural materials and the quiet power of objects chosen with intention. She knows that what we choose to display reveals what we truly value — and she'll help us build frames worthy of the things we've been overlooking.
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.