10:29 AM CST on Friday, March 3, 2006

By JANET KUTNER / The Dallas Morning News

SAN FRANCISCO – Looking for unusual gifts from your next trip?

Museum shops are great places to start, and San Francisco has three great ones, all of which are open online.

The Asian Art Museum store offers everything from antique furniture to custom-designed jewelry, textiles and ceramics. The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art shop sells functional objects and accessories in the sleek contemporary vernacular. The new de Young Museum store presents works evocative of the arts and crafts movement along with objects that mirror the distinctive dimpled façade of the copper-clad building designed by award-winning Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron.

All of these shops carry a wide selection of art and architecture books along with related items such as postcards, posters and note cards.

Here's a sampling:

The elegant bilevel store here puts books and note cards together with educational children's toys on one floor and decorative items and accessories on another. The toy section is particularly colorful, but some of the most appealing works are stuffed animals knitted from natural wools in Africa (choice of elephant, giraffe, warthog and zebra at $24 each).

The pixilated dot pattern found on the outside of the building is embossed on leather goods such as a tote bag ($75), wallet ($52) and coin purse ($20). It also appears on copper-colored accessories such as an anodized aluminum business-card case ($8), pocket notepad ($10) and compact mirror ($12).

Etched copper jewelry by Carol Webb also plays off this motif ($145 to $395). Pixilated leaves adorn porcelain tableware and linens by Lotta Jansdotter ($14 to $44). Both lines are exclusive to the de Young. Other unusual items include sensuously curved, watertight wooden vases by Schleen Design ($645 to $756).

Contact: 415-863-3330; www.deyoungmuseum.org/store.

The mood at the Asian Art Museum store is serene, in keeping with the spirit of the galleries, but there's usually an interesting beat in the background. The shop carries CDs of music from countries as different as Kazakhstan and Thailand.

Staples include antique Korean chests, reproductions of classic Chinese bronzes and ceramics, and elegant celadon vessels by Ko-Chong, a native of South Korea who's been making these objects for more than 40 years.

There have been more Japanese objects than usual, timed to coincide with a special exhibition of ground-breaking paintings from 18th-century Kyoto. Teapots are priced at $76 and up; there are also vintage silk jackets from Kyoto ($45 to $95) and ceramics produced in the small village of Mashiko in the mid-1960s ($60 to $420).

The shop always carries a good selection of jewelry, much of it by local artists. Tiny brocade boxes from China ($3.75) make good small gifts.

Contact: 415-581-3500; www.asianart.org.

This museum has a particularly large children's section filled with wonderful things: a bib adorned with bacon and eggs ($20), animal rugs with cheery faces designed by Claudio Colucci ($80), molded plastic chairs in the form of abstract animals ($82).

Platters by German woodworker Ludwin Sartoris echo the striped pattern of the SFMOMA building designed by Mario Botta ($24 to $70). Curiosities include the Danish wobble glass that tips but never spills, originally designed for first-class airline passengers ($30 for a set of four). Felted wool flower pins by Karin Wagner ($39 to $99) and exotic wooden bracelets and rings by Georges Larondelle ($35 to $88) are interesting accessories.

Flashing rainbow balls ($4) and a deck of Golden Gate Bridge playing cards ($8) fall in the gift category.

Contact: 415-357-4035; www.sfmoma.org.