I’m frequently surprised at the reaction I get from people when I tell them that I make my own soap (including, memorably, the acquaintance who was presented with a bar and stammered, “I thought soap was made from…soap”); they act as though I’ve admitted to translating from the Toltec in my spare time. In reality, making soap is no more difficult than baking a cake: You measure things, you stir them together in the right order, and you pour them into a pan.

There are a number of “home arts” which seem so mysterious and arcane that most people are afraid to try them. Here is a short list of things that I do on a regular basis, that I swear to you are not difficult if you can follow simple directions, and which are immensely satisfying.

Craft: Pickling and Preserving
Why You Should Bother: Because there’s more to life than what’s available at your local megamart. Imagine having a Victorian tea party with rose-petal jam, or giving jars of a Medieval fruit pickle as a unique party favor.
Getting Started: There are ridiculous numbers of tutorials available. Here are a couple of sites to get you started: WikiHOW: Jams Preserves and Condiments and Pick Your Own. I also highly recommend the book The Joy of Pickling.

Craft: Making Cheese
Why You Should Bother: You can make fantastic-tasting cheese cheaper than you can buy it, you can experiment with interesting herb and spice flavorings, and you know exactly what ingredients go into it. Although many cheeses require a coagulant such as rennet, there are many you can make with nothing more than milk and lemon juice. Start with easy fresh cheeses like queso fresco or mozzarella before working your way up to more complex recipes.
Getting Started: Gourmet Sleuth has a number of recipes, and the book Home Cheese Making covers a range of styles and does a good job of explaining the techniques and equipment required.

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Calavera is the Spanish word for “skull,” and is frequently used to describe various traditions associated with the Mexican Day of the Dead celebration.

I like calaveras because you can come over all skull-having and just claim an interest in a perfectly mainstream cultural phenomenon.

There are the traditional figures, which make wonderful little desk accessories, wedding cake toppers, and decorative accents (a bunch of different ones massed on a shelf or side table make an interesting conversation piece). You can find them engaged in virtually every profession and activity imaginable, so they make a cute personalized gift for a hairdresser, new mother, cat lover, or anybody else you can dream up.

There are also sugar skulls, which are fun to decorate and make an unusual party favor (or place card, if you frost each person’s name on the skull). They’re a fun group craft, too: A supply of blank sugar skulls, tubes of icing, and decorative stuff like colorful candies and edible glitter will keep kids or adults entertained. You can use the same molds to cast plaster skulls, then paint or glue on jewels for permanent decorations.

Crafters can make soft-sculpture calaveras like the ones above, and can also find fabric, embroidery patterns, and lots more.

There are also higher-quality (and higher-priced) calaveras like these statuettes, which would be a lovely and elegant addition to a room’s decor. These calavera-themed voodoo dolls are kind of interesting too.

Finally, a Dia de los Muertos theme might let you darken up a wedding ceremony without unnerving your mundane relatives. The Ask Ginka site has some ideas to get you started.

If you’re looking for a way to subtly introduce a few more skulls to your life, just dig up (so to speak) a calavera or two.

Tikabelle at Largely Unrepeatable saw the movie Coraline and was impressed with some of the miniature knit items that make an appearance in the film.

She decided to replicate in life-size a pair of gloves that Coraline covets, and has posted free instructions on her site.

Pretty!

Link (via CRAFT)

Bonus link: Don’t Panic has an interview with knitter Anthea Chrome, who knitted miniature clothes for the film.

Artist Elizabeth McGrath takes little cleavers,* hand-paints them, tarts them up with fake rust and glitter dust, and presents them in a pretty box. She offers a range of designs, from anatomically-correct hearts (which can be personalized!) to freaky little bats with crystal eyes. For $25, it’s a pretty good deal.

The cleavers are small–just 4″–so they could be displayed on a desk or mantel without trouble. It also occurs to me that a bunch of these would be an arresting set of ornaments for a Christmas tree. But maybe that’s just me.

Link (via Neatorama)

*She calls them “butcher knives” all over the site. Apparently she doesn’t cook.

Every so often I’ll see a product whose price indicates that the retailer isn’t aware the DIY community exists. These cute “Jeeves and Wooster” lampshades fall into that category. The materials listed on the site are: “Black wool felt exterior. VO fire-rated polycarbonate diffuser. Fire-rated brass electrical fittings and cord with standard ceiling fitting.” So they’re real hats with a plastic insert to keep them from being singed by the light bulb (although they’re only rated for 40-watt bulbs, so even singeing is unlikely).

The price? A mere £415 ($600).

Huh.

Or you could get a hanging lamp kit* somewhere like Lampshop or National Artcraft, a nice top hat from Nethats or Tophats.com (or any of a zillion other places), and make your own lamp for a small fraction of the price.

These would be a unique addition to a Victorian-themed room, either as overhead lights or grouped as small table lamps. You could change the hat style to reflect your room’s theme, as well as decorating the hats with ribbons or silk flowers. You could also get a little darker and embellish the top hat with voodoo-themed elements like beads and (thoroughly cleaned) chicken bones for a Baron Samedi-style lamp. All kinds of possibilities for personalization! All cheaper than $600! Yay!

*Obviously, make sure whichever lamp base you choose keeps the bulb well away from the fabric of the hat.

Spring will be here before we know it (at least it better be, lest I get all stabby), so it’s time to start thinking about next year’s garden. If you’re looking for an interesting theme, why not try a Bat Garden?

First, check with your local wildlife extension office to see what kind of bats are native to your area. If you have nectar-eating bats, you’ll want to plant fragrant night-blooming flowers. If (more likely) you’ve got insect-eaters, you should choose plants that attract insects.

For nectar-eaters, choose flowers that:

• Bloom at night
• Are large (at least 1″ or more)
• Are pale-colored or white
• Are very fragrant and have lots of nectar

In the American southwest, Agave plants or Saguaro cacti are a good choice. Guava, moonflower, night-blooming gladiolus, passion flowers, sand verbena, tufted primrose, sacred datura, desert tobacco, gilias, and night-blooming cereus are other possibilities. (There are also reports of hummingbird feeders being hijacked by nectar bats, so as a last resort you might hang up one or two of these.)

For insect-eaters, you’ll want to choose plants and create an environment that attracts night-flying insects such as moths. Fragrant night-blooming plants include four o’clocks, heliotrope, silene, evening primrose, nicotiana, cornflowers, evening stock, salvia, phlox, sweet rocket, soapwort, dame’s rocket, gardenia, eastern false aloe, joe-pye weed, and jasmine. You can also choose herbs for double duty, in the kitchen and to attract bats. Good choices are sage, borage, oregano, lemon balm, marjoram, chives (let some of them flower), and all of the mints (spearmint, apple mint, chocolate mint, pennyroyal, pineapple mint, peppermint).

Check to see what kind of conditions these plants like: Depending upon your region, it might be better to grow some of these plants in pots and take them inside during the winter.

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If you’re looking for any kind of cast hardware for home decor or craft projects, look no further than Whitechapel Ltd. They’ve got all kinds of insanely cool items, from doorknobs to antique key blanks to reproduction hardware.

They also offer a variety of technical guides for doing things like antiquing brass or choosing historically-accurate handles.

You can go a long way toward gothing up a piece of furniture with the appropriate hardware, and adding easily-removable items like doorknobs is a good way to bring a personal touch to rooms that you don’t want to permanently alter (like rented apartments or bedrooms in a parent’s house). Although some of the items at Whitechapel are pricey (like the $875 solid-brass lion door knocker), many are surprisingly affordable. The iron bat knocker above, for instance, is only $34. I know what I’m asking for next Christmas.

If you’ve got a steampunk project in mind, or just want to bring an antique touch to a room, check these guys out.

Link (via Steampunk Workshop)

Craftster member silverhart came up with this inspired idea for a pincushion. She doesn’t provide instructions but she’s posted pictures from several different angles, which might help in creating a similar one.

This is one of those head-slapping “why didn’t I think of that” ideas, and I just love her execution. You could take inspiration from this and make a voodoo doll or iron maiden pincushion, too.

Link (via CRAFT)

Old gravestones are works of art, and if you’re lucky enough to be near an historic graveyard, you can (with permission) make rubbings and even castings of interesting stones.

The Gravestone Girls have taken it to the next level: They offer wall art, jewelry, and magnets made from castings or rubbings of 17th, 18th and 19th century gravestones found in cemeteries throughout the New England region.

They’ve recently begun to offer classes, so if you’re in the New England area you can learn how to non-invasively take castings of your own stones.

If nothing else, go take a look at the site for inspiration of your own. I’d never considered using details of old tombstones as decorative objects, but I absolutely love the result.

Link (via Pumpkinrot)

Looking for some great wedding favor ideas? The Wedding Skulls blog is doing “Favour February“–posts for a whole month on ideas for dark wedding treats.

Every day I’ll be talking about wedding favours – one of my favourite details of weddings even though we did none ourselves – and all their manifestations; DIY, budget store-brough favours, customised favours and tips, tricks and advice from favour experts. I know it sounds a little kitsch but, trust me, it will be fun.

Be sure to look around the rest of the site as well. The blog is relatively new, but she’s got some lovely ideas for gothy weddings, including loads of great pictures.