Cheap new craft for beginner?

[Paul_B]

Just read the "Wimbledon forging" thread. Hmmm! How easy is it to set up a forge? I've watched a guy make one on a Scottish camp once.

So I'll put it to the collective, what is the easiest and cheapest craft to get into?

Background, no history in our family of craftmaking. The closest is my mum making curtains up because it was too expensive to buy ready made. I have no space other than an open yard with no shelter. Limited storage space. Limited free time.

Despite all these inconvenient truths I fancy doing something. Preferably something that doesn't involve the risk of cutting parts of me off. That's an elevated risk due to my lack of practical, hands on experience.

Experience consists of woodwork, metalwork and pottery at school. Diy to basic level (shelves, chiselling door hinge rebates to fit internal and external doors, bodging roof repairs to avoid £600 repair bill, etc.). Oh, I nearly forgot the ubiquitous pointy stick as a kid on the cubs and scouts. I can also sharpen a pencil with a Stanley knife to a passable standard without cutting half the pencil away to get there!

Joking aside. I'm a desk jockey who wants a hands on hobby but has limited resources. What craft would suit?

I'd love to forge but getting that idea past the other half's elf and safety with a young child around isn't possible.

 

[Muddypaws]

I think some kind of woodcarving would be quite cheap to get into. Simple utensils like spatulas and spreaders can be carved with just a knife, and costs can be kept down by using found wood.

But don't give up on the forging dream - keep an eye out for odd parts that might one day be a forge (old brake drums or similar).

 

[MartiniDave]

Whittling. Get hold of Chris Lubkeman's (spl) book, a basic swiss army knife and a DC4 stone and off you go.

Dave

 

[crosslandkelly]

How about Pyrography. Kit's start at about £10. Great for making gifts or personalising items.
http://www.hobbycraft.co.uk/kirstie-allsopp-pyrography-kit/601704-1000

 

[Janne]

Woodcarving.
Making new knife handles on knives you source from charity shops and so on.
I believe tying flies for fly fishing is cheap once you have the equipment.

 

[baggins]

woodcarving, or clay modelling (see FIMO), Pyrography, braiding, with paracord or leather. All good for making gifts, learning a simple skill that can lead onto more complex things.
Dn't worry about using a knife, carving and whittling are great ways to learn basic knife skills and, yes, you may nick yourself but with practice comes skill (just have a box of plasters handy).

 

[Paul_B]

Knives? It took watching a cooking show that taught knife skills to stop me cutting through the nail on my thumb when cutting onions, garlic, carrots, etc. It's not nice cutting through the thumb nail and the tip of the thumb too. It bleeds for a long time just when I can't stop cooking. Kitchen towel wrap until there's a gap in the cooking activity allows a plaster to be used.

I reckon a fine carving knife would be worth getting for carving. Perhaps a smaller Opinel as they're cheaper I think. Just need the wood and inspiration as to what to carve.

Brake drums? How do use them? Googling to do.

 

[Janne]

Imho Opinels are less than suitable for a clumsy hand, as the handle is thin. Get a Mora, preferably one of the whittling models. Even a bog standard Mora is better than an Opinel.

 

[Hammock_man]

Tablet Weaving is cheap to get into ?

 

[Broch]

I know it's not high up there in the 'bushcraft' skills list but how about drawing and sketching? you probably already have stuff you could use to start and the materials are not expensive. I believe anybody can draw; I've taught a number of people that started off saying they couldn't. It's also a good primer to other craft such as carving because it teaches you to observe and then convey your observation to the media.

 

[Paul_B]

Sketching and drawing takes skill that I have very little of. I can't draw much more than stick men. Even then I can't be sure you'll recognise them as stick men. Mind you, I really wish I could draw. I have a hankering to be able to draw buildings well. Don't know why but I do. Also pencil drawings of lake district fells.

That leads me to another criteria, it can't be too artistic / creative. I'm not cut that way. Hence forging interests me (plus studied metallurgy a bit at uni a long time ago now it seems).

Been looking at whittling book by recommended author from earlier post. That seems a good idea. Easily obtained wood. I've got a mora knife but it's big and unwieldy. I've seen a carving knife at for about £15. A mora carving knife for less and the same with a crook knife for any £20. It seems like a good, cheap option.

 

[Tengu]

As part of my skill set I have been attending the printing academy; A lot needs a F- press but theres plenty can be done without, Japanese woodblock, linocutting and the old stand by, potato prints.

You need something to make a printing block with; something to cut it with, paper, a burnisher and gooey goache or even acrylic paint...or maybe try fabric printing?

Or, something like tye dyeing or batik.

Or embroidery.(Something I have always religiously avoided but the artefacts I am studying have designs based on Jacobean embroidery...Heyho...look how diverse my studying is getting)

Remember the vast majority of traditional crafts were made with a very limited toolkit.

Go round the car boots and see what you can find. (Charity shops have good stuff too...particularly books. Try to obtain one of those 70s craft tomes that cover Everything...)

 

[Stew]

Sketching and drawing takes skill that I have very little of. I can't draw much more than stick men. Even then I can't be sure you'll recognise them as stick men. Mind you, I really wish I could draw. I have a hankering to be able to draw buildings well. Don't know why but I do. Also pencil drawings of lake district fells.

That leads me to another criteria, it can't be too artistic / creative. I'm not cut that way. Hence forging interests me (plus studied metallurgy a bit at uni a long time ago now it seems).

Been looking at whittling book by recommended author from earlier post. That seems a good idea. Easily obtained wood. I've got a mora knife but it's big and unwieldy. I've seen a carving knife at for about £15. A mora carving knife for less and the same with a crook knife for any £20. It seems like a good, cheap option.

You would be surprised what you can learn about drawing. A lot of it is about mindset rather than ability - it is a skill that can be learned, like most.

 

[Paul_B]

A lot can be learnt and mindset is important. However that is not the issue with me. To paraphrase my school art teacher, art isn't my thing.

Let's put it this way, I look at a beautiful range of hills I don't see beauty as such just geology. I can appreciate art as a beautiful object but it is an image created. I have little in the way of artistic interpretation I guess. When an art critic poetically goes on about the message in a painting I am deaf!

Same with wine, I get no tones of burnt umber. I get nice red, not so nice red and oh my god that's vinegar.

I used to do potato printing as a kid with my mum. She'd cut the shapes (she's artistic) and it's kids would stamp away and make a mess. It would be fun doing that with my boy (5 year old and more creative). Interesting idea, printing. A simple geometric pattern on a potato repeated across the page. Obsessively focused on not making a mistake. That certainly would be a good thing to do. Certainly pass my time more productively than watching the idiot box

However I feel spoons and carving looks like a winner for me. Low artistic talent isn't a complete handicap with carving I think. It's craft more than art.

BTW anyone else think they've had an artistic talent bypass?

 

[Swallow]

What about cordage?

Material will be free.

No complex or dangerous cuts.

Improves finger dexterity.

And once your cordage is made then there's a billion and one paracord projects out there and fair few could be done with the cordage you just made.

 

[Janne]

If you discover you do not enjoy any of the above mentioned hobbies, learn how to make wine from foraged fruit so you can drown your sorrow....

 

[Wayland]

Kolrosing is a good place to start.

Minimal tools and materials and good practice for hand and eye co-ordination.

 

[Paul_B]

If you discover you do not enjoy any of the above mentioned hobbies, learn how to make wine from foraged fruit so you can drown your sorrow....

Elderberry wine. Mmmm! Hic!

Done that, got the hangover. Never did get the trick of siphoning it out of the demijohn into bottles without getting a mouthful!

My dad used to make it when I was a kid. Out of all sorts of fruit and veg. One time he made apple wine (might have been crab apple). Made when I was pre-school. He threw that batch away because it was horrible but kept a couple of bottles. He lost those and found them again 15 years later. At cracked open a bottle expecting the worst. It was possibly the best bottle of white I've ever tasted. It was a flat wine but there was something in the taste that fooled you into thinking it was sparkling wine. It was unusual. I would put it up there with the best champagne I've ever had but it had no bubbles.

My dad had all the gear but ditched a lot in a house move. He only had one demijohn left when I got into it. Mind you that house had a nice warm spot to leave it fermenting away. That batch was my only batch and tasted great for a novice.

My partner suggested getting into wine making a few years ago. She even said she'd do it but we never did not sure my dad even has the kit now to borrow. Besides I doubt I could survive elderberry wine now. I don't drink much and usually feel terrible a few hours after even one glass of wine.

 

[Janne]

Try vodka. If you feel ok after that you can start distilling.
(not sure if it is legal in UK? Very illegal in Sweden.)

Or start brewing ale.

 

[Bishop]

what is the easiest and cheapest craft to get into?

Cordage is probably the least expensive and most useful things to experiment with, both making it and discovering the rabbit hole of what you can do with it. Currently going mad braiding strips of biodegradable bin bags that the council gives away free.

Wood carving, sets of 12 hand chisels and gouges can be found of ebay for under £3. They're not brilliant but good enough to get anybody started.

Cooking! always a winner. The upside of this domestication is the wife now lets me keep a portable gas stove in the kitchen so I can practice one pot meals. Downside, I have to make pancakes & crepes on demand.