Quarantine Crafts for Curious Creatives

We’re all feeling nostalgic right now. Maybe even for just a few weeks ago when we could leave our houses. Let’s ride that nostalgia train back a bit further and visit a time when we were kids and there were no arts without crafts. Whether you’re stuck in a creative rut, or just bored at home, crafts can be a fun, non-serious way to pass time and stay creative. If you don’t like the results, then hey, you’ve already got a present ready for next Christmas. With that said, here’s a list of projects involving things that you can mostly find at home so you can get crafty without leaving the house.

This first project is relatively mindless and time-consuming. It pairs perfectly with that Netflix series playing in the background that you’re not really paying attention to. If you have any old magazines lying around, grab them and put them to use by making a paper… wheel, I suppose. By the end, you’ll have an interesting looking decoration you can use to remind you of this particular moment in time. Though, if you’d rather forget it, it’s all made of paper so feel free to recycle it. You can find the full instructions here.

Keeping with the theme of home decor, here’s an interesting bowl you can make from rubber bands. For this, you’re going to need some glue and rubber bands. This one is definitely time-consuming so fill your netflix queue, prepare some snacks, and brace yourself. You’re free to take this in any direction you like, the scope of the project is limited only by your imagination. You can keep it simple and make a small dish for your keys, or take it to the next level and make some chainmail. The full instructions for this one can be found here.

Let’s have some fun with bleach. Not in a dangerous way, of course, just as an alternative form of spring cleaning. Go find some old clothes that you don’t wear anymore and rather than tossing them out, why not breathe some new life into them by dowsing them in bleach. In a way, the process is kind of the yin to tie-dye’s yang. You tie the garment up in much the same way, but instead of adding beautiful blues or yellows, you’ll engage in a scarification of sorts. Pour bleach on the garment and watch all of those old memories start to fade and bleed away. Cathartic. For the full list of materials and instructions, check the tutorial here.

This next project is pretty cool and you likely have all of the materials you’ll need to do it, though you may not want to. The reason being is that it requires toilet paper. I’m not sure how the situation is looking where you are, but if your supply is running low, you may want to skip this one. This is by far the most involved project so far, but that may make it the most rewarding. Not necessarily because of the final product, but because of what you’ll learn along the way. The process looks a bit like paper mache so you might be able to substitute newspaper or notebook paper if you have any lying around. The full instructions can be found here.

Finally, we have the most time consuming of them all. Stop motion animation. If you’ve seen Wallace and Gromit or more recently, Isle of Dogs or Kubo, then you know what I’m talking about. The process involves painstakingly moving any necessary elements within a composition and taking a photo to represent each frame, so when played in sequence they appear to be moving. For a cinematic look, that means you’ll be taking 24 shots for each second of playtime. If you’re up for the challenge, this will present you with more than enough work to last you for at least the rest of the quarantine. Check out the tutorial here to see how it’s done.

It’s still unclear just how long this quarantine will last. Will these crafts be enough to keep you busy through the rest of it? Only time will tell, but let’s hope I don’t need to follow this up with a part 2.