5 More Quarantine Crafts

I’m back with round two of quarantine crafts. The first installation in this series featured projects using materials found mostly at home. I’ve tried to do the same here, but I couldn’t resist adding some projects with materials you probably won’t have on hand. With that said, here are five more crafts to keep you preoccupied during the quarantine.

Up first, we’ve got an aluminum wire tree. This project is DIY without looking overly homemade. Not only is the final product pretty, but it’s also time-consuming as well. It doesn’t require too many materials to make, either. All you need is a spool of wire, some pliers with a built-in cutter, and some tape. I like this project because you have a lot of room to make creative decisions. You can choose a different type of tree, make it any size you like, or even adapt this same procedure to make something else entirely, like a bike or an animal. You can find the full instructions here.

It doesn’t get more low-tech than this. All you’re going to need is a rock and a nail. Sketch out the design of your choice, and then copy it onto the rock using a pencil. Whether you use it as a paperweight, doorstop, or even just throw it back where you found it for someone else to find is entirely up to you. Maybe make some sort of faux-artifact and play a prank on someone. You can find the full instructions here.

If you’ve been doing a lot of online shopping recently, then you’ll definitely have the materials needed for this next one. It’s a cardboard pangolin. What’s a pangolin? It’s a scaly mammal found in Sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Asia. It’s a bit like a heavily-armored anteater. Its most notable feature, and the reason it will be fun to recreate in cardboard, are the large scales found all over its body. When you’re done you can even give it a name. Unlike a real pet, if the responsibility becomes too much to handle, simply just throw it in the recycling bin. You can find the full instructions here.

Next up, we’ve got a mask tutorial. You’ve probably already seen a bunch of these floating around on the internet, but this one has a feature that makes it worth mentioning. This design employs a knit fabric along the sides of the face. Knit fabric has a bit of stretch and provides a better fit along the contours of the face, eliminating the gap commonly found in other designs. The materials for this project can be sourced from old clothes or any other fabrics you may have on hand. You can find the full instructions here.

This last tutorial was too incredible not to include. That realistic hippo head you see above was created using only wool. The process is called needle felting. It employs a special type of needle that is barbed along the sides. When the needle is plunged into the wool and pulled out, the barbs pull some of the fibers with it. By repeating this process, the wool gradually becomes knotted and dense. With intent, you can form the wool into any shape you can imagine. In this case, a hippo. You probably don’t have the materials on hand to make this, but the needles and wool roving you need are readily available online. You also don’t need to make a sculpture quite this size, though the larger you go, the longer it will take. You can find the full instructions here.

If you’ve already completed the tutorials from the first quarantine crafts piece, then you’re well on your way to having all of your future Christmas or birthday presents sorted out. It’s still unclear just when exactly this quarantine will come to end. Hopefully, you were able to find something in this new installation you like enough to keep you preoccupied for even just a little bit.