Craft Contemporary, Los Angeles

When you think you’ve visited all the museums on Wilshire Boulevard, make sure that you haven’t missed the small Craft Contemporary.

This museum started out as “The Egg and the Eye” Café in 1965, serving over 50 different types of omelettes and selling international folk-art. The café closed down and was transformed into a hands-on museum in 1973, with workshops run by artists and educative programmes.

It’s really a great place to spend an hour or two, where you can learn how to make pot-pourri bowls out of almost anything that can be recycled: plastic bottles, newspapers, cardboard, etc. The museum displays crafts such as woodcarving, papier-mâché, metal work, religious artefacts, clothing, basketwork and weaving. The items are local or international, traditional or contemporary.

The best part of the museum is the gift shop. If you are looking for an original present or a souvenir for yourself, you’ll be sure to find one here! The shop is full of handmade crafts including hand-woven clothes, jewellery, toys and musical instruments such as tambourines, tam-tams, Kudu horns (the fore-runner of the vuvuzela) and beautifully decorated Rainsticks. There are also books about folk-art and educational books for children with step-by-step pictures showing them how to make small baskets, knit a scarf, and make paper-Mache objects and many other interesting items.