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MCD@HOME

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Explore a variety of at-home, hands-on projects developed in tandem with MCD’s exhibitions, local artists, and partner organizations. This all-ages archive is continually growing, featuring easily accessible materials, links to related reading and videos, and exciting opportunities to expand beyond the parameters of each project with creative prompts for more. 

Our downloadable templates encourage you to print instructions and unplug so you can craft and design unhindered by screens!

PROJECTS

Since the summer of 2020, MCD has been partnering with artists and community collaborators to create new content for at-home projects based on the themes, concepts, and materials found within the museum’s signature programs and exhibitions. Check out our MCD@Home projects below and get creating!

The Ancient Art of Cordage with Saorise Bryne

MCD collaborating artist, designer, and crafts-person Saorise Bryne shows how to repurpose familiar fabrics to create meaningful, strong, and versatile cordage.

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Map Score Compositions with Phillip Greenlief

Phillip Greenlief’s Map Score Compositions combine music, maps, and MakeArt to create visual guides that inspire artists of all disciplines to create.

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Spooky Squeegee Painting Portals

Reimagine a squeegee as a painting tool and layer materials to reveal what lies beyond the painted portal.

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A row of hand crafted Memory Medals inspired by Iris Eichenberg

Memory Medals

Make an Eichenberg-inspired medal to commemorate a loved one, acquaintance, or stranger!

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Pieces of soap scattered on a table.

Subtractive Soap Sculptures

Carve out time to craft and create a Robyn Horn inspired soap sculpture.

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Book Box

Bring to life your favorite book with a craftily designed diorama!

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A close up of Synthetic Scratch-and-Sniff

Synthetic Scratch-and-Sniff

Try your hand at olfactory design while revisiting the Scratch-and-Sniff fad of the 1970s & 80s!

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Sleek “Stained Glass” Suncatchers

Experiment with refraction and intentionally direct light rays through suncatchers to transform spaces!

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Assorted pieces of colorful rolled paper

Aromatic Accessories

Enjoy scent in style wherever you go with a Living with Scents-inspired wearable diffuser.

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Assorted colors of paper clips, fake jewels and washi tape

Visible Transparency Design Challenge

Use the design thinking process to ideate, prototype, and test as you transform old materials into purposeful objects!

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Close up of tote bag with colorful marker design and embroidered

Textured Textile Tote Bags

Reimagine an old tote bag to create a “Mode Brut” inspired wearable!

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Mode Brut Exhibition entrance. White walls with artistic aprons and masks hanging

Cloaks of Creativity

Inspired by the apron designs of Creativity Explored artists, this project invites crafters to wake up the creative side of themselves through functional fabric fun.

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Monica Valentine for MCD@Home at the Museum of Craft and Design

CG Artist Spotlight: Monica Valentine

Follow in the footsteps of Monica Valentine, a blind artist at Creative Growth who makes optically charged sculptures using beads, sequins, and styrofoam!

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Gerald Wiggins for MCD@Home at the Museum of Craft and Design

CE Artist Spotlight: Gerald Wiggins

Co-authored by CE artist Gerald Wiggins, this project leads crafters in transforming fabric into their own ‘textile creation’!

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Creativity Explored Spotlight on Joseph Omolayole for MCD@Home, Museum of Craft and Design

CE Artist Spotlight: Joseph Omolayole

Get to know the Creativity Explored artist Joseph Omolayole by exploring his portfolio, creative practice, and interviews.

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Tsunagi MCD@Home project from the Museum of Craft and Design

Tsunagi

Create your own Mode Brut-inspired artworks with a pre-designed template and creatively reframe your personal relationship with nature and the world.

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Quick Pressed Flowers MCD@Home project from the Museum of Craft and Design

Quick Pressed Flowers

Immortalize scenes of summer with this quick method to produce beautiful pressed flowers.

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Distance Hat MCD@Home project by the Museum of Craft and Design

Distance Hat

Design your own avant-garde chapeau inspired by “Design By Distance”!

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Rock Mandala MCD@Home project from the Museum of Craft and Design

Rock Mandalas

Combine natural materials with personalized, decorative design in this meditative mandala activity.

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Summer Wreath MCD@Home project from the Museum of Craft and Design

Summer Wreath

Send a symbol of cheer and welcome from your front door!

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DIY Quarantine Emojis MCD@Home project from the Museum of Craft and Design

DIY Quarantine Emojis

Get inspired by Jessica Walsh’s Coronus emojis, featured in MCD’s virtual show Design by Distance, and create your own quarantine emoji.

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Junk Boats MCD@Home project from Museum of Craft and Design

Junk Boats

Use recycled materials to design sea-worthy boats inspired by San Francisco’s history as a prominent working port and the current re-envisioning of its southern waterfront.

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Engineering Experiments MCD@Home project from the Museum of Craft and Design

Engineering Experiments

Learn about engineering techniques used for lifting heavy objects – even buildings!

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DIY Desk Organizer MCD@Home project with Museum of Craft and Design

DIY Desk Organizer

Prepare for the new school year, or simply revitalize your at-home workspace! Spend some time considering your repurposed materials in order to design an organizer specific to your space and needs.

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Crafty School Supplies MCD@Home project with Museum of Craft and Design

Crafty School Supplies

Upgrade your back-to-school basics with these exciting, tactile additions!

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Plan Section and Elevation MCD@Home project with Museum of Craft and Design

Plan, Section, Elevation

Dive into one of the design challenges of Girls Garage, based on plan, section, and elevation: drawings that are used to describe any 3-dimensional object!

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Watercolor Tire Wash MCD@Home project from Museum of Craft and Design

Watercolor Tire Wash

In preparation for MCD’s new exhibition MOTO MMXX, familiarize yourself with motorcycle tire treads through a wax resist process!

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DIY Honey Bear Hunt MCD@Home project with the Museum of Craft and Design

DIY Honey Bear Hunt

DIY Honey Bear Hunt Sponsored by RECOMMENDED AGE LEVEL Recommended for ages 12 and up with adult supervision (ages 4 and up for coloring steps). PROJECT DESCRIPTION If you live...

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Mechanical Thinking MCD@Home project with Museum of the Craft and Design

Mechanical Thinking Collection

Girls Garage wants you to get in the garage … and craft studio, and kitchen, and beyond!

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Pop Up Background Card MCD@Home project at the Museum of Craft and Design

Pop Up Background Card

Create a simple, pop-up backdrop for your motorcycle model, or add details from a favorite realistic or imaginary scene!

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Spare Parts Moto MCD@Home project at the Museum of Craft and Design

Spare Parts Moto

Gather together an assortment of recycled materials, and build a sustainable, custom moto bike of your own to celebrate the new exhibition MOTO MMXX.

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Natural Textures MCD@Home project at the Museum of Craft and Design

Natural Effects

Use crayons to borrow texture directly from surfaces near your home. Bark, leaves, fences, and more can all be sources for patterns and designs.

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Chrome Effects MCD@Home project at the Museum of Craft and Design

Chrome Effects

Inspired by the gleaming motorcycle components in MOTO MMXX, play with an adapted analog version of digital chrome text to create a custom nameplate or sign.

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Canstellations MCD@Home project for the Museum of Craft and Design

Canstellations

Accompany the autumnal equinox with its astrological sign of Virgo, design an illuminated pattern, or create the effect of a starry sky, using a recycled tin can.

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Rope Bowl MCD@Home project at the Museum of Craft and Design

Rope Bowl

This project represents a little piece of Dogpatch history when the Tubbs Rope Walk stood just across from MCD’s location today.

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Culture Quilt MCD@Home project at the Museum of Craft and Design

Culture Quilt

From Native traditions to recipes from a distant homeland – this project will collect heritage stories in a virtual Culture Quilt.

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Confetti Card MCD@Home at the Museum of Craft and Design

Confetti Card

Drawing inspiration from the works of Gary Hutton and Tom Bonauro in Encoded Holidays, these “confetti shaker cards” will utilize craft, creativity, and the USPS to send some love to friends and family!

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JD Green’s Textile Transformations

Joseph “JD” Green from Creativity Explored (CE) guides us through the process of tie-dying with bleach.

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black and white newspaper

Newspaper Architecture

Build architectural structures with newspaper tubes!

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Embroidering a picture of a flower onto felt.

Katherine Finn-Gamino’s Embroidered Flowers

Creativity Explored Artist Kathy Finn-Gamino teaches us how to make embroidered felt flowers!

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Creative Growth artists Tanisha Warren, Monica Valentine, and Christine Szeto as well as select pieces of their art.

Textile Treasures

Get to know the artists of Creative Growth, an Oakland non-profit dedicated to bringing artists with disabilities into the contemporary art space.

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Closet Repurposing

Closet Repurposing Sponsored by RECOMMENDED AGE LEVEL Recommended for ages 6 and up with adult supervision. PROJECT DESCRIPTION This project is inspired by the artists exhibited in Mode Brut and...

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Food coloring and eye dropper and sponge

Time Sponges

This activity accelerates the process of time and adds bursts of color to compressed sponges (both natural and synthetic!), which uniquely reflect the fusion between the artist’s intent and the environmental forces at play. 

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Color Catchers

Color Catcher

This project incorporates natural light, color, geometry, and architecture elements for a version of a stained glass window that will make sunlight dance!

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Spirit Animal Totem

Spirit Totem

Join MCD and our featured artist Dolores Gray as we explore Native American concepts of “total use” and spirit totems.

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Awesome Assemblage

Awesome Assemblage

Learn how to turn any old, broken, or unwanted objects into intriguing free-standing sculptures and installations.

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Ripped cardboard

Cardboard Paper Mache

Learn how to transform your cardboard clutter into a strong and versatile sculpting material with just a few simple steps.

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Land Art

Forage Art

These project prompts encourage you to create art through the process of gathering and arranging materials– without utilizing any additional tools or supplies.

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A heart-shaped red box with a gold glitter top

Bespoke Heart

Use different papers, recycled materials, and more to tailor custom containers for all your special someones.

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Hand holding an hourglass

Sands of Time

Race against the clock and see how quickly you can build a majestic hourglass of your own.

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Map of San Francisco Bay Area

Recognizing Bay Area Roots

Use clay (foraged or purchased!) or homemade salt dough to create a 3D puzzle map exploring the pre-Columbian history of San Francisco and its neighboring regions.

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Loom and a jumble of yarn

Wall Woven Calendar

Create a textile of a period of time – be it a week, month, or year – by adding a different piece of material to a weaving loom or frame each day.

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Jellyfish swimming

Jammin’ Jellyfish

With temperatures heating up, it’s the perfect time to make a crafty splash with paper mache jellyfish!

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Red crystal rock candy texture

Love Rocks

Imagine love crystalizing and growing with this sweet project!

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A patchwork of different colored squares

Imagining Pi

March 14th is International Pi Day! In honor of this mystical symbol—and in tandem with the virtual exhibition, Imagining Data—take a deep dive into the complex, irrational, and beautiful world of pi.

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Blue cyanotype of leaf

Blue Where

With this kit, you will use premade sunprint paper and weeds found near your home to experiment with the cyanotype process, documenting place, and creative pattern design.

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Color ice cubes on and hand reaching out to one white cloth

Sensory Salt

We see the effects of natural processes all around us– like plants sprouting up outside and sun rays bleaching surface areas. “Design by Time” leverages these forces, working with ‘Time as Creator’, to demonstrate how materials change over time when exposed to environmental conditions.

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Paper motorcycle goggles

Glowing Moto Goggles

Whether incorporating a moto theme into this year’s Halloween costume, or just sprucing up your everyday riding gear, these glowing goggles will give you some extra funky flair.

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Green and white swirled paint

Marbled Bottles

Bring beautiful new life to old recycled bottles. Plus, thin out your nail polish supply as a part of the quarantine clutter purge!

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Natural Dye T-Shirt Yarn

With summer weather comes more opportunity to be outside and to get a little messy. Tie dye is a traditional summer activity, and this variation uses natural, safe, familiar materials that you may not have considered before. Deconstruct a regular t-shirt to make usable yarn, dye it, and then use it as raw material to braid, finger-weave, or crochet a necklace or bracelet.

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bean bags made out of different color ballons and tied at top

DIY Bean Bags

Create your own bean bags from materials you probably already have in your house.

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Flower Crown made from color tissue paper close up

Paper Flower Crowns

Celebrate the flora of Mother Earth with these paper flower crowns–inspired by San Francisco’s Conservatory of Flowers and the upcoming 150 year anniversary of Golden Gate Park.

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DIY Spirograph

Create your own household version of a spirograph and read more about its engineering and history! In honor of Earth Day, get inspired by this video illustration of the Earth and Venus orbiting around the Sun.  

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