MFGmfgworkshop@gmail.com

An educational guild training residents of the Morongo Basin in trades related to repair services (upholstery, lighting, furniture repair). Open to students of all ages, backgrounds and abilities, MFG encourages professional development and business incubation. By pairing the ecological principals of a circular economy with the potential of a creative economy, MFG is building entrepreneurial pathways for creative workers.







What happens when we design for attachment rather than replacement? Research shows that products that evoke strong emotional bonds are more likely to be repaired, maintained and kept—and therefore live longer. Circular economy is about keeping products and materials in use for as long as possible through care, repair and reuse.

From the “Belongings” exhibition at the Design Museum Denmark (January 27 to May 31, 2026)










Context To survive in the Mojave Desert, residents must be resourceful—a character trait strained in recent years by seismic demographic shifts. According to the US Census Bureau, nearly one-fifth of Morongo Basin residents lived below the federal poverty line in 2024, and 18.4% high desert residents moved that year (higher than the national average of 11%)—statistics describing the financial and housing precarity pervading the area. “When someone is successful, they leave,” observed a Black Rock High School student.

As an antidote to relocation and resignation, MFG fosters professional opportunity and creative community outside of traditional sites. By channeling decades of residential and commercial design experience into dynamic curriculum and retail exposure, MFG bridges the aesthetically-attuned tourism sector with locals keen to pivot professionally. MFG harnesses the upswell of creativity coursing through the Morongo Basin—a site recognized as the most promising creative economy in San Bernardino County. MFG reimagines vo-tech training for resolute desert creatives.