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!
A Robot Made It, First with Rae Lanzerotti
Rae Lanzerotti is an artist and somatic teacher from San Francisco. They make zines and comics as well as tactile art, using mixed media to expand disability access and aesthetics.
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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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Memory Medals
Make an Eichenberg-inspired medal to commemorate a loved one, acquaintance, or stranger!
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Subtractive Soap Sculptures
Carve out time to craft and create a Robyn Horn inspired soap sculpture.
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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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Aromatic Accessories
Enjoy scent in style wherever you go with a Living with Scents-inspired wearable diffuser.
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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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Textured Textile Tote Bags
Reimagine an old tote bag to create a “Mode Brut” inspired wearable!
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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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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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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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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
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
Immortalize scenes of summer with this quick method to produce beautiful pressed flowers.
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Rock Mandalas
Combine natural materials with personalized, decorative design in this meditative mandala activity.
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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
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
Learn about engineering techniques used for lifting heavy objects – even buildings!
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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
Upgrade your back-to-school basics with these exciting, tactile additions!
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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
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
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 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
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
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 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
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
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
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
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
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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Katherine Finn-Gamino’s Embroidered Flowers
Creativity Explored Artist Kathy Finn-Gamino teaches us how to make embroidered felt flowers!
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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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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 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 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
Learn how to turn any old, broken, or unwanted objects into intriguing free-standing sculptures and installations.
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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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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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Bespoke Heart
Use different papers, recycled materials, and more to tailor custom containers for all your special someones.
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Sands of Time
Race against the clock and see how quickly you can build a majestic hourglass of your own.
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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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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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Jammin’ Jellyfish
With temperatures heating up, it’s the perfect time to make a crafty splash with paper mache jellyfish!
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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 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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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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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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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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DIY Bean Bags
Create your own bean bags from materials you probably already have in your house.
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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.
Learn More >>RELATED PROGRAMS
UPCOMING EVENTS
Mobile MakeArt: Library Fridays–Mission Bay Branch
XERO Club: MCD 20th Anniversary Gala
Mobile MakeArt: Library Fridays–Potrero Branch
