#crafting IS survival

[the-prophesied-disco-gay]

"I'd love to have hobbies but I'm too broke"

"Yeah sounds fun, if you have that kind of money"

"Lol out of touch. Like people just have the money for craft supplies laying around"

My loves. My beautiful humans of all varieties. I am kissing you on the forehead so gently and begging you

Do. It. Poor.

Humanity has existed for around three hundred thousand years. Money as we know it has existed for about five thousand of those years. Humans have been doing stuff without money for most of our history as a species.

Find out what resources are available in your area and get your hands on some and create something with them.

This can include things like "buy nothing" groups and construction rubbish and lengths of carpet in the dumpster behind the local flooring place. Free pallets and broken tiles and scrap fabric on marketplace and craigslist.

It can also include natural clay deposits you teach yourself to refine for pottery, and plants that can be turned into fibers and spun and woven, and minerals and husks and berries and roots and a thousand other things that can be used to make natural dyes.

I have made paper from the wood of a neighbor's tree that they had to cut down. I collected a good bit of it for my mom to do woodturning with as well and she made wooden cooking spoons and spatulas, and wooden hair pins, and pens, and some chairs.

I have knit bags made from yarn I spun from local cottonwood fluff I collected off the ground.

I have dyed paper and fabric and soaps and wood and hair using dyes made from local plants and kitchen scraps and mineral pigments I collected and ground and mixed myself. I have made my own paints and inks and paintbrushes and canvasses as well.

I have made beautiful mosaic topped side/end/coffee/bedside tables with broken tile bits and scrap wood or sometimes scrap metal.

I taught myself how to make butter and jams and bread and jerky and a plethora of other things from scratch through mostly trial and error and bothering people's grandmothers

I taught myself how to make fishooks from a variety of materials

I've made cat trees from carpet scraps and junk wood, and cat toys from feathers and fabric scraps and sticks and string (I did sterilize the feathers to avoid illness and mites and such)

I have made soap from scratch using table scraps and lye I extracted from wood ash. I have similarly made lotions, salves, balms, and tinctures from scratch from collected materials. I have made candles from both tallow and beeswax acquired for free or very low cost, acquired from local apiaries and butchers.

I have made clothes for myself and others, as well as shawls, bags, scarves, quilts and whole host of other things from free sheets, blankets, clothes, and other "trash" fabric people were either giving or throwing away because of holes or rips or stains.

I taught myself leatherworking to make bracelets and bag straps and sandals and fetish gear from scrap bits of leather, usually sourced from ripped or otherwise damaged leather jackets that were being thrown out.

I taught myself to weave wreaths cause we have pine trees here and what the fuck do you mean eighty dollars for some pine boughs and ribbon???

I spent 6 months travelling without purchasing a single night in a hotel room or purchasing a single travel ticket of any kind, picking up odd jobs and selling things I crafted from materials found along the way and ride sharing and camping (yes there was an element of danger there, but travel is always dangerous. Being alive is dangerous. Being a fat neurodivergent disabled queer afab poor person is hella dangerous. I refuse to spend my precious life isolated and afraid)

Sand paintings can be done with pine resin, natural dyes, and sand.

Makeup can be made entirely from things you can find around you in most parts of the world.

Felting can be done with pet hair.

Carving

Whittling

Cooking

Metalworking/blacksmithing

Hunting and trapping

A canoe can be made from...a tree

Please, please look at the world you are part of and realize *it will not charge you money for joy*

Look at how the native peoples of your area did the thing you want to do. Look at how other cultures have historically accomplished that thing. Pretend civilization has fallen and there isn't anyone to pay for materials and supplies. Pretend plastic doesn't exist. You are so much freer than you realize. Do it poor. Live your life. Your desire is the only permission you need in order to create, in order to have hobbies (Victor Frankenstein and Hannibal Lector I am not talking to you).

And for those of you worried about whether this applies to you, I am both poor and heavily disabled. I cannot stand or walk for longer than ten or fifteen minutes. I cannot lift more than ten pounds without *fracturing my spine*. My glasses give people migraines. I am AuDHD. You learn to work around your limitations, and accomodate yourself. I learned how to make myself a folding stool with 3 decent sized branches and some strips of leather or canvass. It is lightweight but holds all my medically obese self without issue. I put a strap on that sucker and now I have place to sit whenever I need, even if it's every few steps. I'm not on anyone else's timeframe when I am doing this stuff, I'll sit when I please for as long as I need. I learned how to make a travois for dragging stuff I can't safely lift. I got a cheap immersion blender because my shoulders can't handle the level of stirring required for soap making and several other things. I do almost everything, including furniture making, sitting down, often in my wheelchair (which I got for free and made a seat for cause it didn't have one and I couldn't afford an intact, functional wheelchair). These things can be adjusted for disability, for neurotype, for location (including inner city), for limited available time (I was working 3 jobs and raising toddlers for a good portion of this time, before I became too disabled to work). Human creativity is near limitless. Use it!

If you don't know where to start or how to find the info you need or how to accomplish your hobby for free or low cost, ask! Ask me, ask other crafty people, ask people with an interest in anthropology, ask local groups of indigenous artisans, ask the internet. Don't expect folks to construct a detailed, start to finish set of instructions for you, but they can usually point you in the right direction in terms of finding the knowledge you need, or to get you past a point you're stuck at (an affectionately exasperated older lady once emailed back with just "you didn't add vinegar to fix the dye did you?" I....had not). Not every craft or hobby will be able to done low cost (I do not know how to make a telescope sorry) but many can, more than most people think.

Capitalism is a cage for the human spirit. Slip the bars baby.

[prokopetz]

I need a survival crafting game where every non-starting biome is hostile to the player character's survival, but for really stupid reasons. None of this "oh, it's too hot, oh, there's no air" stuff – give me a biome where I need to craft a reinforced umbrella to avoid being randomly killed by periodic rains of eight-pound bullfrogs.

[shalottpress]

The Pack Survives by @astolat.

My second bind had to be this Robb Stark centric masterpiece that has lived rent free in my brain since December 2023. I wanted to get this finished before the year anniversary hit in December.

I love this bind and she is my beloved second born but holy hell I’m glad she is done.

In all honesty, this bind was cursed from the off. Everything that could have gone wrong with this bind went wrong. I had to resew the signatures because wood oil, I made my design slightly too big so adding it to the cover was wonky and I melted parts of the black vinyl adding my silver vinyl to the book cloth to name but a few mistakes. I didn’t dare try to trim her edges, lord knows where I would have ended up.

All that said I’m still proud of her and wanted to share. Done is better than perfect and I hope I look back in a year and see how far I have truly come.

The Pack Survives can be read for free on AO3.

[stainedglass-sketchbook]

CHILDREN OF BHAAL

I adore the vibe of redeemed durge your sister killed your mind and took your place - it was the greatest gift she ever gave you

[wasyago]

two builds from creative as well

interior practice + a funky house that is also a functional survival base ( admittedly tho made out of very late-game materials )

[betterbooksandthings]

Best Fantasy Anime (with mostly female leads)

Listen, I love fantasy anime. They are fun and I love a fight scene as much as the next girl. I am relatively uninterested in male leads mostly because of the *cough, cough* excessive fan service. So, without further adu, if you are interested in some fantasy with women at the helm here's what I got.

Frieren: Beyond Journey's End

Yona of the Dawn

Inuyasha

Wandering Witch: The Journey of Elaina

Villainess Level 99: I May Be the Hidden Boss But I'm Not the Demon Lord

7th Time Loop: The Villainess Enjoys a Carefree Life Married to Her Worst Enemy!

Fluffy Paradise

Ascendance of a Bookworm

I Shall Survive Using Potions!

The Saint's Magic Power is Omnipotent

Tearmoon Empire

My Daughter Left the Nest and Returned an S-Rank Adventurer

My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!

Sacrificial Princess and the King of Beasts

Saving 80,000 Gold in Another World for my Retirement

Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear

I'm the Villainess, So I'm Taming the Final Boss

Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle

Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid

Reincarnated as a Sword

Dahlia in Bloom: Crafting a Fresh Start with Magical Tools

Kakuriyo -Bed & Breakfast for Spirits-

The Vexations of a Shut-In Vampire Princess

Didn't I Say to Make My Abilities Average in the Next Life?!

Management of Novice Alchemist

These ones I am keeping an eye on but signs point to a favorable outcome.

The Do-Over Damsel Conquers the Dragon Emperor

I'll Become a Villainess Who Goes Down in History

Nina the Starry Bride

[lavampira]

see the light, feel the heat

[uncanny-tranny]

If I'm honest, the whole "love in every stitch" saying for fiber artists does not apply to me, like. I'm trying to get this fucking hook into stubborn yarn and I'll be stabbing it like it owed me money. Is that love because I hope not 😭💀

[oneblckcoffee]

and here we thought netflix lost their main character but in fact they got the most fucked up insane storyline of all time i hope the producers are popping bottles you really couldn’t write this

[elbiotipo]

"Survival" game: Press X to destroy that tree bare-handed. Now you have Wood, press Enter to access your inventory and turn Wood into a Crafting Table. Now press E on your Crafting Table and use Coal and Iron to make a Steam Engine.

[kirby-the-gorb]

[thedenofravenpuff]

Using a motivational poster meme as inspiration for a cross stitch done in honour of Disability Pride Month.

Took my own spin on it for some details and what not. Had fun making it.

So do enjoy!

The Roan RPG Project ScreeCon Server on Discord Leave a Tip on Ko-Fi

[one-sexy-fucking-toucan]

I was thinking about it today and there is enough similarity between The King and Siffrin for something. I don't know what but there is something.

[bevanne46]

Sewing is Not a Hobby! It's a Post Apocalyptic Survival Skill!

[novadragoness]

Listen, all I'm saying is that it's quite brave of Z'rell to call Durge's love interest 'pathetic', after General Thorm The Undying Ancient Spooky Boss Guy himself just gave kudos to Durge's special ruthlessness and sadistic creative talent.

Brave, or stupid, is what I'm saying here.

[peebcrafts]

𝓢𝓾𝓻𝓿𝓲𝓿𝓪𝓵 𝔀𝓸𝓻𝓵𝓭 𝓫𝓾𝓲𝓵𝓭𝓼🐸🌷

IM ALIVE HELLO still on the minecraft addiction, i forgot my login! Heres a few from my boyfriend and I's minecraft modded world!