Custom Creative Experiences

The Craft Center can help you create a one-of-a-kind experience for you and your group. Great for team building, book clubs, social groups, or other private events! Led by professional artists at the Craft Center, participants are invited de-stress, immerse themselves in the process of being creative and enjoy the opportunity to make an artifact or art object by hand. Contact one of our representatives at craftcenter@ucsd.edu.

Please note: for scheduling purposes, workshops require 3 weeks advance notice. Minimum number of participants is 5 people, up to 25 or 30, depending on activity selected. (If your anticipated number of participants do not fall within that range, we will try to work with you to customize the experience within reason).

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Custom Creative Experience Options:

Block Printing

Make a positive impression on your friends and/or colleagues! Experience the joy of transforming a simple image or pattern into a block that you can print multiple times. Using traditional printmaking methods, participants will learn to carve out their design, ink the block and print the image on a variety of papers to create a series of prints.

This workshop takes 1.5-2 hours and costs $45/person.

Ceramics Sampler

Participants are introduced to the stress-relieving and playful experience of shaping clay into something beautiful and functional. Experienced artists provide a brief overview of the different traditions of ceramic arts: hand-building and wheel throwing, and facilitate participants’ exploration of the medium in a supportive environment designed for a range of skill sets. Each participant will create a clay art piece by hand which will be glazed and fired at the Craft Center. Projects will be available for pick up approximately 2 weeks after workshop date.

This workshop takes 1.5 hours and costs $80/person.

Edible Spring Rolls

Enjoy the fun of learning how to prepare a delicious appetizer or light meal together. Rice paper wrappers envelop a rainbow of ingredients from carrots, cucumbers, optional proteins and more. Participants will learn to source ingredients, prepare them properly, and put together a stunning presentation design! Making mouth-watering sauces top off this fabulous culinary experience.

This workshop takes 1-1.5 hours and costs $60/person for 5-9 and $50/person for 10+.

Friendly Cupcake Wars

Work together in teams to challenge your taste buds and creativity as you make and decorate cupcakes with unlikely ingredients. Bacon and parmesan in your buttercream? Chives in your batter? You and your teammates will have to decide what unusual- yet yummy- ingredients to add to your confectionary creations. At the end, each team will present and sample each others creations and vote for the favorites.

This workshop takes 1.5-2 hours and costs $60/person with a minimum of 8 participants or $480.

Fused Glass Tile Project

Using a colorful array of provided glass pieces and embellishments, you will create an abstract or representational design of your choice and adhere it onto a 4”x 4” glass base “canvas”. Your piece will be fired in a glass kiln and ready for you to hang or display it the following week!

This workshop takes 1.5-2 hours and costs $75/person for groups of 10 or more, $70/person for groups of 5-9.

Recycled plastic jewelry, keychains or sun catchers

Transform hard-to-recycle plastic #6 into colorful, luminous art pieces you can wear, hang in your window (or on your lunch box) or transform into a key chain.

This workshop takes 1-1.5 hours and costs $45/person.

Natural Fabric Dyeing- Indigo + Shibori

Learn how to beautifully transform cloth using the ancient resist-dye techniques found around the world. Using simple materials, you’ll create a design using a traditional technique such as tegumo (tie-dye) or itajime (clamp-resist) and indigo dye to transform a white cotton bandana into wearable art.

This workshop takes 1-1.5 hours and costs $50/person.

Smash Your Stress Mosaics

Relieve stress, have some fun and make something beautiful and functional! Smash plates and other ceramic ware with hammers and then glue pieces to a decorative mirror frame.

This workshop takes 3 hours and costs $60/person. Please note it cannot be shortened to less than 3 hours. Smashing stress takes some quality time!