Make Fungi Art
Create your own mushroom art at the Santa Cruz Fungus Fair! Try dyeing fabric swatches, get your face painted and more. Fun for all ages!
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Creative Crafts
Use all your senses and creativity to explore the world of mycology in our family friendly Craft Room. Enjoy the creative process of designing mushroom inspired art while learning about fascinating fungi!
Open 9 am - 5 pm on Saturday and Sunday. (Closed on Friday)
Mushroom Cap Creation Station
Visit the Craft Room and design your own “spore-tacular” mushroom cap to wear around the festival!
This all-ages activity lets you make your own unique fungal fashion statement styled after our own native Amanita muscaria. Take your custom mushroom cap home and show off your mycological masterpiece!
Fly agaric, Fort Bragg (2021). Photo by Hugh Smith
Fungi Fine Lines and Watercolor Wonders
After you learn about different kinds of mushrooms, come create scenes full of fantastic fungi, from morels to chanterelles!
Chanterelle. Photo by Yevgeny Nyden 
Chanterelle stencil 
Create custom mushroom buttons at the Santa Cruz Fungus Fair. Photo by Hugh Smith
You can also use stencils to trace the shapes of your favorite mushrooms in wax crayon and then paint a watercolor scene for your fungi.
Make One-of-a-Kind Buttons
Design your own mushroom buttons and we'll mount them on a pin for you. For some extra “pop”, use white crayon and dark watercolors to make your mushrooms magically appear! Perfect for all ages.
Design a fun mushroom button at the Santa Cruz Fungus Fair. Photo by Hugh Smith
Toadstools for Tots
Let your little ones get creative with this fun and simple mushroom craft! Use simple materials to make mini mushrooms in a playful activity that’s easy for little fingers to enjoy. Leave with a cute handmade mushroom to remind them of their Fungus Fair adventure!
Toadstools for tots drawing at the Fair Plant your child's toadstool at home!
Dye Silk with Mushroom Pigments
301 Center St, Santa Cruz, CA 95060, USA
Did you know that you can dye fabrics and paint on paper with inks (pigments) made from certain mushrooms?
Visitors trying mushroom dyed fabrics at the 44th Fungus Fair. Photo by Hugh Smith 
Fabric dyed with mushroom pigment at the 51st FFSC Fungus Fair. Photo by Hugh Smith
FFSC member Debbie Johnson and her crew have been teaching visitors how to use mushroom pigments to dye silk for longer than anyone can remember. Visit the Craft Room at the Fungus Fair to try out this ever popular and inspired art form. (Open Saturday and Sunday only).
Find out more about this fascinating craft on the FFSC website:
Face Painting and More
Take photos with fun sculptures and artwork, get your face painted or try painting a friend's face!
On your way between the craft room, vendor room, Fungi Forest and scheduled talks, get inspired by the variety of fun and creative concepts that people submitted for the 2026 Fungus Fair Logo, from sketches to completed works. (And check out a glow-in-the-dark version of the logo on this year's Fungus Fair T-shirt!)
Explore all of our indoor and outdoor art areas and have fun!
Face painting at the Santa Cruz Fungus Fair. Photo by Hugh Smith Community Canvas at the 51st Santa Cruz Fungus Fair. Photo by Hugh Smith Face painting at the 2018 Santa Cruz Fungus Fair. Photo by Hugh Smith
