Something to Keep Your Hands Busy
(Arts and Sciences)
We all need something to do when we're just hanging around camp, and arts and sciences can be a great way to develop (and show off) your skills. The best part: many arts and sciences can be done cheaply, or even for free!
The stuff on this page:
- General tips
- The 5-step method
- Tips submitted by other people
- Projects you can start for under $10
- Beginner's guide to cross-stitch
General tips on Arts and Sciences:
- Bardic: One of the cheapest activities in the SCA is bardic arts. Singing and storytelling only require your voice: no money needed! If you don't know any songs or stories, don't worry. Go to your local library and take out some books on folklore, or just hang around other bards. Most of them will happily regale you as long as you want to listen.
- Embroidery: If you love sewing, but can't afford the fabric (even with the tips from the Garb for Seamstresses page), try embroidery. I've made embroidered banners for as little as CAN$20, including the fabric and wooden dowels to hang them.
- Talk to people: Try talking to other people who are engaged in the arts you want to try. They will often have good suggestions for where you can get cheap materials, or how to do things in a more efficient way.
- Borrow, don't buy: If you're just getting started, see if you can borrow someone's materials to try them out. It's no use buying a calligraphy pen only to realize you don't like scroll-making after all. It would probably be easier to find an accomplished scribe and ask him to borrow an old pen.
- Check out my list of cheap projects: Click on this link to see a list of activities you can start with less than $10.
How, specifically, can you get cheap stuff for arts and sciences? It differs for each art, but here are some general techniques. If I get enough comments on any one discipline in particular, I'll make a separate page for it.
- Get it free: Depending on the art or science you want to try, you or someone you know might very well have material lying around the house you can use. Let the word out that you're looking for certain materials or to try a new art or science and some people might even offer to help you. And remember, bardic is free!
- Barter for it: If you already are engaged in other arts and sciences, see if you can barter with someone for the material you're looking for. Or, you can offer to give your first piece to whoever helps you buy the materials to get started.
- Pay someone in the SCA for it: Many people start projects and then get discouraged, or move on. I, at least, have tools from several projects that I know will never be finished, and I know lots of people who do, too. Look around to see if someone will sell your their used tools. Many times they might give you huge discounts just for clearing up some of their clutter space, or at least knowing that their tools are going to good homes.
- Get it used at discount: Depending on what you want, you can probably find at least some of your tools at garage sales, flea markets, or thrift stores. You might also try specialty stores that cater to your type of art. Ask people you know who are already doing what you want to do, and ask where they get their material and tools.
- Get it cheap: Sometimes, you won't have an alternative but to buy things retail. Check around to see if there are any classes being offered in your area for similar skills (some craft stores will do this). If so, they might offer discounts to people enrolled in their classes, and you'll learn something too! Again, ask people where they buy their materials, and who has good prices. If you get together, you might be able to get a group discount.
Tips submitted by other people
- Submitted by Eulalia de Ravenfeld: Drop spindles. I went to my local craft supply store and found all the supplies needed to make cheap, period-looking drop spindles. All you need to buy are wooden "toy wheels", dowels that fit into the holes in the wheels, and tiny cup hooks. You will also need a small amount of wood glue (you might find someone who will let you use theirs), a saw (I used the one on my pocket knife), and some kind of wood finish (this is optional, they work fine without it). Saw the dowels into the right length (I cut each dowel into 8 pieces), and glue a piece into each wheel so the end is flush with the wheel. When the glue has dried, screw a cup hook into the end of the dowel that's inside the wheel. Voila! Drop spindle! Supplies, including wood glue, for 12 spindles cost me around $15 US (actually a little less). At that price, you could start a cottage industry selling the things!
- Submitted by Lady Sara Aston: Once, at an event, I saw a woman who had made a perfectly useful drop spindel for FREE. You know those CD's that you get for free in the mail(aol...etc). Well, she took two of those and glued them together back to back. Then she took a small wooden dowel (I think it came from a wooden coat hanger) and glued it in the middle. Now, I grant you, this did not look very period, but if you just wanted to try spinning and you were not sure if it was really your thing then this would be a way you could try it for free.
- Submitted by Lord Donal O'Brien: Something to Keep Your Hands Busy: Certain types of brewing can be done very simply, very cheaply, and in a very small amount of space. Cordials can be made in a quart glass jar with vodka, fruit, and sugar. Mead can be made a gallon at a time with honey, water, and raisins.
- Submitted by Lady Liadan ingen Orthanaich: I have a tip for some cheap A&S fun: Take up spinning. A spindle can be bought cheaply or made easily, and fiber is pretty inexpensive too. Plus, a small investment in fiber yields many hours of fun, including spinning, possibly dyeing, then knitting or weaving, and in the end you have a useful and beautiful item that you made yourself (and didn't have to buy). It's possible to take this craft to great heights, or to keep it small and cheap just for something to do.
- Submitted by Lady Isabella Dati: Take a class! Quite often, class fess will be more affordable than buying your own starter supplies, you can get tips (often cost-saving ones!), and the opportunity to try before laying out all your cash.
- Also submitted by Lady Isabella Dati: If you enjoy needlework, try some that are thrifty with thread - you can do a great deal of blackwork on a single skein of DMC floss and a ube of cross-stitch fabric, totaling about $2 at Wal-mart. Needlelace (not bobbin lace) is also inexpensive in materials.
- Submitted by Lady Cassandra of Glastonbury: Take a class and ask the teacher. I have been given all sorts of stuff just because I expressed an interest. I have also given away/sold/bartered off materials that have sat for 3 years that I never got around to using but seemed like a good purchase at that time.
Want to submit a tip? Email the webmistress at julie.golick@gmail.com.