What old fashioned craft[s] are you still involved with?

I home-brew. Yum! Self taught and damn good at it with lots of Blue Ribbons for proof!

I occasionally engage in the epistolary form, with wax and everything… if that counts.

I’ve gotten back to knitting. Currently I’m knitting a character from a video game. There is also an afghan in progress. Once that’s done, I need to get back to this cross-stitch that has been going for about 7 or 8 years!

My dad used to brew his own beer. He had quite a following who would visit to test each new batch @Cruiser. I didn’t even think of home brew.

@everephebe I will admit my ignorance, what is epistolary form, with wax?

@tedibear I am (for the first time in years) knitting my husband a jumper. I am determined to finish it and then, and I don’t care how it looks, he will have to wear it :D

I’m a potter that also has dabbled in woodworking,woodcarving,weaving,candlemaking,and ass kicking.
There is nothing like a good old-fashioned ass kicking.XD

Lol @lucillelucillelucille couldn’t agree more on the ass-kicking. It is becoming a lost skill I feel though. There should be more of it. I really want to have a go at glass blowing. It is on my bucket list. I love glass. I imagine producing pottery would be quite therapeutic? Manipulating clay into the shape you want.

@lucillelucillelucille is the only person I can think of that finds ass kicking to be a craft. Though I guess there is a certain art to a well done right hook. :D

@Bellatrix – Of course he must wear it! Even if it’s just in the house. And I had to go to dictionary.com to look up epistolary. I thought @everephebe was doing something weird with facial hair!

@Bellatrix—It can be.A friend of mine is a glassblower and he thinks of it that way too.You can probably take a class at any glass studio around.:)
@tedibear -XD

I tried to get into wood carving and very much enjoyed it, but found my arms weren’t strong enough to do very well. I’ll keep at it once I’ve worked out some. XD And one of my life goals is to learn how to blow glass. My mom spins yarn do I get credit for that?

When I’m not overwhelmed with other things, I spin, knit, weave, make soap. I garden. Also cook and read paper books – aren’t those “old timey” skills now? ;)

Mr. Laureth is also a homebrewer, but mostly I just drink that.

Why do I keep doing it? Because it feels like the right thing to do. I hope to manage my life in such way that in the next few years, I’m doing this most of the time.

Lol @Mariah, only if you can do it too! It is good to see such crafts being kept alive though. We will have to swap notes on our glass blowing activities when we get around to them.

Yes, cooking certainly can be @Laureth and definitely if you get into preserving and baking and the like. Sad really.

I wonder if there will eventually be some sort of reversal and people will become more interested in these crafts and skills? Perhaps they are having a resurgence already? I think more people are becoming involved in growing their own vegetables and producing their own food?

@Bellatrix – I think these skills will have a resurgence as peak oil changes our energy and fertilizer usage. Foraging, for example, is becoming popular again lately due to many factors, including the down economy. I expect that one day we’ll look back and the pervasive lack of survival skills nowadays will seem like a historical anomaly.

@Mariah -You can also carve with a Dremel type tool….much easier on the muscles.
The man I learned from carves birds with one and does beautiful work with intricate detail. :)

@everephebe I looked up epistolary. That’s badass!

I do wheel pottery and make soap. My sister and I got really into making soap for a while and we made a little business out of it when we were in high school. It was fun tweaking our own recipes and finding herbs and essential oils to add in there.

I used to work with sheet metal for a while, at one place I was lucky enough to work with a an old guy who did old school metalwork.

If you give me a sheet of metal, a sand bag, and a hammer with a flat and rounded edge, I can make you a medieval helmet or other thing.

I do decoupage. I took a class on faux finishing once, and that’s where I learned decoupage. I wish I had more time to do it, and the stuff I do is very good quality, but it’s more a time issue for me. I usually do boxes, for example old crappy jewelry boxes I buy at tag sales, or little unfinished wooden boxes I buy at craft stores. I may faux finish them, or sand them and leave them natural, and then decoupage images onto them, and then many layers of polyurethane. I have tried to teach people how to decoupage, but they have trouble with the layers of poly, which takes a lot of time.

When I was young I had a candle making kit, and that was lots of fun.

Two things I would like to learn how to do are beading and soap making.

I’ve learned how to make candles and soap as part of a home ec class, but I don’t do it now.

I would love to learn to knit. There was a girl in my 8th grade class chosen to play Madame DeFarge for our (corny) production of Tale of Two Cities because A) she was 5’9” and built like a grown woman already at 13, hence, she looked intimidating, and B) she could knit, so when she sat there on stage, knitting and handing out damage, it just all worked. I think she ended up making a sweater from her knitting between first rehearsal on through to the end of the run.

custom framing, canvas stretching, giclee print making.

i chuckle at the pre-stretched canvases at the art stores

My wife makes quilts. That is as close as I come.

Oh, this is one of my passions! I sew, quilt and make stuffed animals. I make soap and potpourri and stuff from essential oils. I can, pickle, and dry. I make homemade bread from scratch. I can milk a goat and make homemade cheese and yogurt. I do small woodworking and want to move on to large stuff someday. I can build a shed or a llama chute. I’ve raised chickens. I hunt mushrooms and forage for wild foods. I can garden. Although I wouldn’t do it unless it were a survival situation, I can fish or trap small animals.

Most of my skills are self-taught; I learned a few from my dad.

<<<<<< struggles with deciding to move closer to @crisw or @Cruiser in preparing for the fast approaching apocalypse.

Does listening to LP’s count?

Cordage twisting from wild plant fibers, bow-making (for archery) and arrow-making, flint-knapping (sort of), knitting, crochet, sewing, metalworking (rudimentary, but working on getting or making a crucible so I can melt down .22 brass), canning (food), fermenting foods (mostly kimchi) and drinks (kombucha), primitive shelter making, primitive trap making, yogurts and cheeses on occasion, concocting various herbal remedies, making my own hair gel from flax seed, companion plant gardening, and foraging for both food and medicine. I’m sure I’ve forgotten some.

I love old-fashioned skills. It’s so satisfying to hold, look at, wear, eat, drink… something you made yourself. I’ll take up almost anything: Crochet, needlework, sewing, tatting, stained glass, jewelry making, beading, canning & preserving etc. I don’t spend as much time on those as I used to, but I do love the feeling I get using power tools for woodworking.

If you want to get me excited, put me in a room with access to a belt sander, wood lathe, drill press, scroll saw and table saw.
Rawrrr

I like to perform this little jig when guests come a calling.
Awww, older family members do love it so ;¬}

When I was a kid I did all sorts of crafty stuffs and would love to have time to re hone my skills at silk embroidery and ceramics. When I didn’t work then I did a lot of cooking, most of very fun.

Almost @zen…45’s would be a shoo-in!

@Cruiser 45’s would be up for consideration, 78 rpm’s would be a shoo-in

Okay, by Lucy Thrice’s advice, I’m wood carving again. I think it loses standing as an old fashioned craft since I’m using power tools though… XD

I have a small business making hand crafted soap the old fashioned way. I also do RLRP in historical displays. Next year, I’ll be participating in Stiklestad. The market participants stay overnight there in a tent or the long house. (I’m hoping for a spot in the Longhouse.) http://www.stiklestad.no/international/english/
http://www.venturenorway.no/mid-norway/stiklestad-national-cultural-centre

I also do nålbinding and am trying to teach myself sprang. I’ll make a sprang loom for Stiklestad.

I learned about soapmaking through a friend of mine from the US… not hands-on. I learned mostly from the internet. Same with my current technique of nålbinding is from the internet too.

Oh yea, I’m decent at making functional pottery, but I’ve yet to get around to doing a traditional wood firing. All in due time. It’s pretty hard to find clay deposits around here, anyway. I also make small containers out of bark, but that’s relatively new to me and I’ve yet to try anything too complicated. Basket weaving is something I need to practice, as well.

I crochet. Or at least, I used to crochet about a year or two ago, but I haven’t recently. The last time I crocheted was before Christmas; I crocheted a little polar bear for my mom. I’d really like to get better at it, but I think I need to pick up knitting to make anything that I’d really like to make.
I really want to learn more crafts because I love handmade things and I like the idea of being able to create things for yourself/others instead of buying factory-made things.

I know how to do most of the traditional needlecrafts, but I don’t work with them as much as I used to.

Candle-making, cast iron cooking, canvas stretching, string instrument building, rudimentary gunsmithing, canning, fire-making, trapping, etc.

@ucme Does your “little jig” take place before or after you’ve ripped my bloody heart from my chest and eaten it before my very eyes?

Wow, so many amazingly talented people which is one reason I asked this question. It is always fascinating to learn more about people and what they do outside of their normal workday. @RealEyesRealizeRealLies I would love to learn framing. I have so many things that need framing but a. it costs a fortune and b. I would like to do it myself. Another thing on my bucket list, learn how to frame things.

@filmfann, handmade quilts are so beautiful. Your wife must be very patient.

@crisw, wow, so many talents. Cheese making. That would be great. Serving cheese you made yourself after dinner. I was thinking that myself @RealEyesRealizeRealLies! And add @Incendiary Dan to that group too. Making your own bows and the like…

LOL @Blueroses. I hear you! I agree. And no, @zen . If listening to LPs counts, I am also talented!

Far out @Cazzie!

Thank you @Martianspringtime and @Yarnlady. My grandmother taught me to crochet and knit. It was one of the most joyful times in my life. Sitting with her by the fire learning to knit. Since then I have learned how to do tapastries and cross stitching but like you @Yarnlady, don’t do this work as much as I used to. I would like to get back into drawing. I also love to draw.

@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard… also on the survival team for when the apocalyps comes.

I am not surprised by any of the answers here. I think it is fabulous to be part of such a talented and artistic group of people. I hope some of you will share some pictures of your work if you feel you can. I promise to make my husband model “the jumper” once it is complete. Even if it is an odd looking beast (the jumper, not the husband :D).

And @ucme, I have stood in front of a bunch of Maori men while they do the Haka and it was a great thing to see.

Thank you all for sharing a little more about yourselves. I have to stop saying “it is on my list” and just get these things done.

@Bellatrix I’ve got some pictures of a few of my projects on my Facebook. I forget who is on there, since I’ve added a bunch recently and haven’t used it much in the past week.

I think I am there… think… I am a facebook novice. I will look though Dan. You know, I was thinking after our conversation the other day about food, you really, really should write a book about your knowledge of bush foods etc. I am sure there is a market for it.

There’s a huge market. Unfortunately, there are already books on the subjects. Might as well try, though.

I’m actually thinking of putting together a book made mostly of my blog entries, editted to form. The instructional writings will be the appendices, I think.

$.99 cent ebooks are all the rage @incendiary_dan. Short and sweet you’ve got enough for a series. At a buck a piece for an electronic download, you’d sell millions of them.

they’re all over ebay

I definitely think you might as well try. You just need to find a point of difference. Let us know when you get something written.

I started sewing when I was 4 from scraps that my mom gave me, I’ve done every type of embroidery out there- candlewicking, crossstitch, plastic canvas, crewel. I can make almost anything with a sewing machine (almost= I can’t make a tailored jacket) and have done leather work, macrame, silk painting, batik, shibori, ikebana, indigo dyeing, basketweaving, pottery, ceramics and also did metal work—made sculptures from iron. I also paint with acrylics (no patience for oils) work with pastels, pen and ink. I just bought my own batik set and will do more fabric dyeing soon.
I love costume design and can whip up almost anything needed for theater and do make up teck work… but can’t cook or hit a softball :D

I crochet a lot. I had realized the other day, it’s actually really relaxing. I love to crochet. Sometimes I stitch, but only when I have the right materials. My grandmother taught me how to do all of that stuff. Quilting, knitting, crocheting, all that jazz.

I can do a lot of crafty things, but most of them I can’t do well. I don’t do them very often, either.

I can crochet, but have forgotten how to do anything beyond a simple chain. I used to do a lot of cross stitch and latch hook rug making, but haven’t in years. I’ve done wood carving (very crude and basic, but I enjoyed the hell out of it!), Japanese painting, pottery, basket weaving (which I loved, buy my fingers didn’t) and various other artsy things. I could probably still do a good job at calligraphy, but don’t have the proper tools.

These days, I mostly paint (canvases and walls), decoupage, and do a little wood working (power tools rule though, so it’s not very old fashioned).

Oh yeah, add baking to my list.

Here is an example of my instrument making. I built it with hand tools that would have been available to any clever individual in the Great Depression.

Is needlefelting an old craft? I do that.

@Mariah Sounds old to me. What is it?

@incendiary_dan it’s awesome.

@Mariah, will you make me some needle felted vegetables?

@incendiary_dan It’s a method of felting wool where you use barbed needles to create the shapes. Also what Fiddle said. XD

That is pretty awesome. Can I start to request some designs put on my wool felt stuff?

I totally would if you really wanted, haha! XD

Seriously, I think I want to learn that so I can put leaves and flowers and shit on my wool coat.

It’s really easy to learn (very intuitive) and fun! You should do it!

I’m ready to sign up for @Mariah‘s Needlefelting class, too!

Just do not, not, not, poke yourself with needlefelting needles! They are barbed like porcupine quills…

I’ve only ever managed to give myself a few tiny pokse but I’ve heard about much worse. Needles through fingers….gahhh!