Royce Hunt-Bell, founder of Roycycled Treasures, has built a vibrant creative community around the belief that art becomes even more powerful when it’s shared. Known for encouraging women to experiment, play, and trust their creative instincts, Royce recently hosted the first Roycycled Besties Retreat in Safford, Arizona. What unfolded was far more than a weekend of crafting—it became a powerful reminder of how transformative a creative retreat for women can be. In this reflection, Royce shares what happened when more than fifty women gathered to create, connect, and rediscover their creative confidence together.
On the Transformational Power of Art, Community, and Giving Yourself Permission
I’ve always believed something powerful happens when women create together. But I didn’t fully understand it until fifty-three of them showed up in a room in Safford, Arizona. Some flew across the country. Some drove through the desert. A few signed up without knowing a single detail about what they’d be doing, just that they needed to be there. And at least half of them almost talked themselves out of coming. (I know this because they told me. Repeatedly. While laughing about it.)
What happened over the next three days? That’s what I want to share with you.
Because when women create together, something shifts. Not just on the table. Inside. The way we see ourselves. The way we speak to ourselves. The stories we’ve been carrying around about who we are and what we’re allowed to become.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let me take you back to the beginning.
The Weekend That Changed Me, Too
Women traveled from New Hampshire, California, Texas, Florida, Oregon, Virginia, Ohio, and even Ottawa, Canada to attend the first-ever Roycycled Besties Retreat. They flew. They drove. Some came with friends. Some came completely alone.
And here’s the part that still gets me: most of them didn’t know exactly what they were signing up for.
I had intentionally kept the projects under wraps. No supply lists posted. No sneak peeks of the final piece. I asked them to trust me, to show up open, curious, and willing to be surprised. And fifty-three women said yes to that.
Think about that for a second. In a world that tells us to research everything, plan everything, and know the outcome before we even begin, these women chose trust. They chose curiosity. They chose themselves.
That’s where the magic started.
More Than a Craft Retreat
I’ve taught a lot of workshops. And if I’m honest, I always expect a certain mix in the room. A handful who are afraid to start. A few perfectionists who need to be gently pried away from their inner critic. And at least one or two who sit back and watch before they’re willing to jump in.
But this weekend? Something was different.
We opened the retreat with something I’ve never done before at an event this size. Before anyone touched a single supply, we talked about mindset, about the stories we tell ourselves, the ones that whisper, “You’re not creative enough,” or “This isn’t for someone like you.” We talked about grace, for ourselves and for each other. And we made an agreement, right there in that room: we were going to create a safe space. Together. Not just me and my staff. All of us.
My dear friend Jane Belante, a coach who helps women identify and overcome self-imposed obstacles, led journaling sessions each morning. She helped the ladies dig into limiting beliefs, rewrite old narratives, and open themselves up to the creative process in a way that went far deeper than paint and paper.
And I believe (with everything in me) that those sessions changed the trajectory of the entire weekend.
What Fearlessness Looks Like with a Paintbrush
One of our activities was deceptively simple: trace a bird from a magazine page, and then paint it.
I expected color blocks. Simple shapes filled in with bold, playful color. That’s what I’ve seen at nearly every workshop I’ve taught.
But when I walked around the room? Y’all. I was not ready.
These women were studying their sources like trained artists. They were blending colors. Adding shading. Paying attention to feather details, to value, to light and shadow. They weren’t just filling in shapes, they were seeing. Really seeing. And what they put on paper reflected something that had shifted inside them.
They had given themselves permission to be artists. Not someday. Not after more classes. Right then and there.
I asked them to show up as “mad scientists,” willing to experiment, willing to play, willing to let go of the outcome. And they did. They made stamps from hot glue. They ran foam through a Big Shot for the first time. They layered and blended and created pieces on Geli Plates that had the whole table doing happy dances.
One attendee told me afterward, “I came with expectations. What I left with was transformation.”
Another said, simply: “You changed my life this weekend. That’s not an exaggeration.”
The Real Project Was Never on the Table
Here’s what I’ve come to understand more deeply through this experience: when women feel safe, they create freely. And when they create freely, they begin to see themselves differently.
This retreat wasn’t about building a master board or learning a new technique (though we did all of that). It was about what happens inside a woman when she gives herself permission to take up space. To make a mess. To try something unfamiliar and discover she’s more capable than she ever believed.
I watched women who hadn’t picked up a paintbrush in years hold up their finished pieces with tears in their eyes. I watched brand-new creatives and seasoned artists sit side by side, equally amazed by what they’d made. I watched a woman who told me she would “never” stand in front of a group volunteer to lead stretches for the room, because the mindset work we’d done made her feel brave enough to try.
That moment (Linda standing up in front of fifty women she didn’t know, leading us in something that had everything to do with becoming), that’s the moment I knew this retreat was doing exactly what it was supposed to do.
It was never just about the art. It was about returning to ourselves.
What Community Really Means
I talk a lot about community. It’s at the center of everything I build. But this weekend taught me something new about what that word actually means.
Community isn’t just showing up to the same event. It’s choosing to see the person next to you. It’s noticing when someone is sitting alone and pulling up a chair. It’s celebrating someone else’s breakthrough as if it were your own.
I had women at this retreat who came by themselves, not knowing a single soul in the room. And by the end of the first evening, they were laughing with people who felt like lifelong friends. One woman, April, registered the morning the event started. She drove from Phoenix, walked into a room full of strangers, and left with a community she didn’t know she’d been searching for.
About ten members of my Roycycled Besties Membership had only ever met online. This weekend, they met face to face for the first time. And the way they held each other (the way they cried and laughed and immediately fell into a rhythm of deep friendship) reminded me why I do this work.
I had two friends attend together: one an established artist, one a complete beginner. They both told me the experience was equally valuable, that regardless of where they were on their creative journey, they each walked away with something they didn’t have before.
That’s what community does. It meets you where you are and says, “You belong here.”
For the Women in Their Third Act
So many of the women I serve (and so many who came to this retreat) are in what I lovingly call their “third act.” They’ve raised children. They’ve built careers. They’ve cared for aging parents and held their families together through seasons that asked everything of them.
And now, they’re standing in a quiet moment, asking a question they may not have asked in decades: What about me?
That question? It’s the beginning. And it deserves a safe place to land.
I believe (deeply) that when a woman gives herself permission to create, she gives herself permission to take up space in every other part of her life, too. Creativity isn’t a luxury. It’s a lifeline. It’s a mirror. It’s a way of saying, “I’m still here. I still have something to offer. And I’m not done becoming.”
One of the retreat attendees put it so beautifully in her feedback: “Freeing. Exciting. Joyful.” Another said: “Found my soul sisters.” And one woman wrote something that I carry with me: “This is exactly what I didn’t know I needed.”
Where Curiosity Leads, Creativity Follows
That phrase guided the spirit of our retreat weekend, and it’s become something of a compass for me.
Because that’s how it works, isn’t it? You don’t have to have all the answers. You don’t have to feel ready. You just have to be curious enough to take the first step.
And when you do (when you walk through that door with an open heart and a willingness to try), creativity meets you there. Connection meets you there. Transformation meets you there.
To the women who joined me in Safford: thank you for trusting me. Thank you for trusting yourselves. Thank you for reminding me that this work matters more than I can say.
And to the woman reading this who’s been standing just outside the door, wondering if it’s for her:
It is. It’s always been for you.
Come on in.
And if you’re ready to take that first step (or even just curious about what it might feel like), I’d love for you to join us at the next Roycycled Besties Retreat, April 23–26, 2026, in Safford, Arizona. It’s an intimate weekend limited to just 55 women. No experience required. Just an open heart and a willingness to say yes to yourself.
Visit 2026 Roycycled Retreat to learn more. I’ll save you a seat.
Royce Hunt-Bell is the founder of Roycycled Treasures, a creative education brand built on one radical belief: art is for everyone.
Learn more at Roycycled Academy
