Abstract
It is known in the field of design, that when a project comes to shape, an emotional value of the designer or the team of designers that put together all the elements for the project to be born, it is and will be always something that artificiality and industry will never be able to meet. Imagine for a moment that even before the project comes as an idea, the designer is able to create a material that may be the perfect match for that idea to arise into a project. This pictorial is presented as a way to evidence the valuable contribute that material experience through the concept of Do-It-Yourself Materials is providing nowadays to designer's research. It is an approach to understand what is happening when everything starts with the material in mind before the project. By a meticulous interrogation to design students during the development of a material, a collection of experiences and a visual storytelling of a Do-It-Yourself Materials are presented to elucidate the importance of the meaning that the designer provides when, as an alchemist gains control of the material through interacting with it, how that meaning is carried within the material and therefore can be transferred to the project subsequently throughout an established vision.