In this paper, we present an online workshop that uses making as a strategy to reveal new insights and facilitate interdisciplinary collaboration. The paper is intended to start conversations about different forms of material engagement in learning environments, and how artists and designers can use material approaches to respond to complex challenges, such as care. Our aim for this material-led workshop was to encourage students to engage with care as a topic of critical analysis by adopting making as a way to think about this abstract concept. As educators, we also experimented with making as a strategy to create a caring learning environment. Our analysis identified that the workshop fostered inclusive collaboration, sparked stimulating conversations, connected theory and practice, and created experiences and spaces of care. We discuss our findings based on three categories: care as a subject of art and design education, care through teaching and care through making. We also consider how the workshop might be different in physical spaces and propose aspects that we can incorporate in future iterations, such as having more time to learn about the objects created. The workshop can serve as a model and be applied to explore other abstract concepts in various contexts and is relevant to professionals interested in making and applying similar approaches in their practice.