Your stuff

[TeaDidikai]

Okay- for those who don't know me or my practices well, let me give some foundation.

1) I am a very picky person. Very picky.

2) I have a style of faith and practice that is almost completely intagrated to the rest of my life.

3) I am "handy" and thus I make or decorate a lot of my tools so they fit me perfectly in style and form.

I wanted to open this up to a discussion of what people's ideal tool sets look like. This can include raw materials, styles and personal touches for things such as ritual clothing, blades, bells and bobs as you see fit.  

[Fiddlers Green]

Depends what I'm doing...
Generally speaking, I'll need a seperate tool set for each individual formulae, to prevent cross-contamination, and ensure that every tool is perfectly suited to it's job. 3nodding  

[TeaDidikai]

Give us some generic non-oathed examples Hun. (I plan to go at length on the subject when I get home)  

[Fiddlers Green]

When dealing with me, there is no such thing as generic.
Each equation is completely unique due to the different variables, even if it is just time occurring.
But certain resonances can be exploited.
Cupperium's affinity for lightning for example... but that is not a tool set...
Hmm... the best tool set I could have is the facilities to make the individual tools I'll need. sweatdrop  

[Doctrix]

Haha! I'm not handy at all! This is how my tool aquisition has worked several times in the past...

Step 1: Kudzu buys cheap piece of crap off of Ebay or from a thrift store, or cobbles something together out of super glue and wishful thinking.
Step 2: Kudzu blesses piece of crap but does not consecrate it.
Step 3: Kudzu uses piece of crap at every circle, calling it "The Ghetto [name of tool]" and becoming the laughing-stock of the local Wiccan community.
Step 4: Loving member of The Family breaks down and buys/makes/improves a tool for Kudzu.
Step 5: Kudzu consecrates fancy tool and receives many compliments on it.
Step 6: Kudzu puts piece of crap on a give-away table at a Family gathering for Family members to fight over joyously.  

[TeaDidikai]

[Kudzu]

Haha! I'm not handy at all! This is how my tool aquisition has worked several times in the past...

Step 1: Kudzu buys cheap piece of crap off of Ebay or from a thrift store, or cobbles something together out of super glue and wishful thinking.
Step 2: Kudzu blesses piece of crap but does not consecrate it.
Step 3: Kudzu uses piece of crap at every circle, calling it "The Ghetto [name of tool]" and becoming the laughing-stock of the local Wiccan community.
Step 4: Loving member of The Family breaks down and buys/makes/improves a tool for Kudzu.
Step 5: Kudzu consecrates fancy tool and receives many compliments on it.
Step 6: Kudzu puts piece of crap on a give-away table at a Family gathering for Family members to fight over joyously.

Step 7: Kudzu makes this post in Tea's Thread on Gaia- considering Tea lives but a couple hours away.

Step 8: Kudzu tells Tea what she needs, likes and wants.

Step 9: Tea makes it if it is counted amongst her skills

Step 10: Tea gives it to Kudzu.  

[PurpleDragonsGems]

Most of my things are either:

A: Given to me
B: Found in a thrift store
C: Made from things that are given to me, found in a thrift store, and/or found in nature.  

[maenad nuri]

I have stuff?

Things come into my possession, or I do fake arts and crafts.  

[TeaDidikai]

My turn.

The materials I like best myself are different woods- largely hazel, oak, apple, cherry, rosewood and linden.

Horn and Antler- (I like mule deer and black tail over other deer antler, not a fan of moose antler, and I like steer horns with a hint of blue pigment to them better than ram horn or anything else of that ilk).

Here’s a picture of my drinking horn…





… I’m a little disheartened by it at the moment. It was used at my Handfasting- but it is under the impression it belongs somewhere else. gonk I’m hoping I can convince it otherwise.

Big fan of titanium- especially blackened Titanium.

I love alexandrite and I love smooth green river stone as well as generic pebbles.

I also love leather and fur, but for some odd reason I have a lot of “snow furs”, white rabbit and artic fox for the most part.

Wool is nice, especially for cloaks- but I prefer viscose fabric.

Colors are another concern. In what I like to call “formal” settings, I usually am found in black, blue and white. This would include the Blots of the local Asatru group that I attend. In “casual” settings- that is pretty much everything else (largely working on my own in a “shamanic” function) I am usually found in browns, blues and greens. Save for the black and white- almost everything I were has modeled or muted tones- for a very practical reason- it helps when I am borrowing from the Earth.

On to the tools themselves.

I am currently working on obtaining my jewelry and my blades. I’d make it myself, but I don’t have any equipment that would stand up to working with titanium and live to tell the tale.

I intend to have 14 piercings- even if folks will only be able to see 13- all of which will be done with implant grade blackened titanium. Eventually the nostril piercing will shift from a ring to an amy-emerald change alexandrite stud with a bevel setting in blackened titanium.

My goal is to make/buy/commission a titanium “bayonet” that will have it’s mounting converted into a sheath for a secondary blade. The “bayonet” will have either a leather or wire wrapped handle, while the smaller secondary blade will have an antler handle.

I have a brown leather “putsi”, what some folks would call a “Medicine bag” that has a silver ring and a wooden zanki charm on the outside.

I have my pendent:


I am currently putting the final touches on my ran or “walking staff”. It comes just to the pit of my throat in height.

I do have a couple simple wooden bowls I used, as well as a rather large stone mortar with a wooden pestle that looks like it could be a child’s baseball bat.

Then we have my bowed psaltery. It is made of Cherry and Rosewood and has a rosette of the Slavic Fire Flower.

Finally, there is my ink- which I am also working towards. In addition to a series of tools being bound into my flesh (a “map of the universe”, a “wish-maker” and a warding), there is also the actual sacrifice that is offered at the time the ink is taken.

All my ink is done in black for the time being- an echo of the black and “white” affinity of some of the lessons my Baba imparted.

I also have “ancestor tokens”, including a silver rosary from my Baba, pictures, wooden carvings, fishing poles from my father, and I own a couple of crystal balls from my Nana, and a number of different “divination” tools, a set of bone dice that is over five generations in the family.

And speaking of divination, I do own a set of Zanki I made myself.



The final item of importance to me is “makeup”, more for it’s use as a temporary spell than aesthetics- not that aesthetics don’t come into play at all… but you get my drift.  

[Amber Ocean]

I've gotten into making most of my tools. I went through a 'buying' phase, and occasionally, when I find the right tool I'll buy it.

I'm working on making my own besom (broom). I have a beautiful piece of wood that I sat and carved/sanded. It's goregous. Maybe I'll have to post pictures.  

[Kal Eldritch]

Materials: My mind? (ominous silence of disbelief)

Well, that one fell down the crapper. Most of my limited materials are store bought items. My aquisition of these items is pretty limited however, and I'd love to make my own stuff, but I have two problems.

1.) Conservative anti-religious father.
2.) Limited space...and the fact that I don't have absolute privacy.  

[Henry Dorsett Case]

I still haven't made my initial tools yet - specifically, I inted to go full-bore crazy and hand-bind my own grimoire and cut my own quills. Still haven't decided what feathers I'd prefer to use for those. Once I start laying out rituals (or join an established religion), I'll have to look into other tools.

I do some chainmail work for myself and others, though - mostly just jewelry, but once I can get my hands on another pound of rings I'm thinking about trying to weave myself something with a flexible "matrix" that I can use as an energy bank. Perhaps a torque weaved in the Serpent's Spine pattern.

EDIT: Re-re-re-reading the thread title...why do I hear Tea saying "Your Stuff. GET. IT. OFF. MY. LAWN."?  

[Aesi]

My glorious tools: kitchen, rug, bathtub, window.

Inspiring, huh? As per recommendations, I have begun doing the LBRP. That's how the rug got in that list. Otherwise, I try to meditate in the bath, while cooking, and while sitting in my nice new overstuffed chair by the window. Haven't quite gotten up the nerve to try any spell or ritual other than the Pentagram, so I haven't needed more defined tools.  

[Doctrix]

TeaDidikai

[Kudzu]

Haha! I'm not handy at all! This is how my tool aquisition has worked several times in the past...

Step 1: Kudzu buys cheap piece of crap off of Ebay or from a thrift store, or cobbles something together out of super glue and wishful thinking.
Step 2: Kudzu blesses piece of crap but does not consecrate it.
Step 3: Kudzu uses piece of crap at every circle, calling it "The Ghetto [name of tool]" and becoming the laughing-stock of the local Wiccan community.
Step 4: Loving member of The Family breaks down and buys/makes/improves a tool for Kudzu.
Step 5: Kudzu consecrates fancy tool and receives many compliments on it.
Step 6: Kudzu puts piece of crap on a give-away table at a Family gathering for Family members to fight over joyously.

Step 7: Kudzu makes this post in Tea's Thread on Gaia- considering Tea lives but a couple hours away.

Step 8: Kudzu tells Tea what she needs, likes and wants.

Step 9: Tea makes it if it is counted amongst her skills

Step 10: Tea gives it to Kudzu.

Ooh! I just have to take you up on that! I'll have to check up with my Elders to find out more about the specs that ideal tools might meet!