Do-It-Yourself

Do it yourself is an old term and represents the very core of sustainable living. We deal with energy, soils and agriculture, water supplies and construction, all in a do it yourself sense, in other parts of Appropedia. Here we gather together all the other aspects of sustainable living in one section.

Many of these activities have long been seen as mere hobbies but they were once considered as essential human arts and surely will be again. Their present practice is very necessary to keep them alive and well for when they again will be needed. Can you make soap? Or a pair of shoes? So what will you do if these are no longer easily available?

• Construction
• Cooking
  • Recipes from the past
    • Hominy
    • Cooking Your Goose
    • Food Preservation
    • Taffy Pull
    • Egg dishes
    • Sausages and Oysters
• Handicrafts
  • Bamboo crafts
  • Basketry
    • White Oak Baskets
    • Chair Seats from Corn Shucks
  • Blacksmithing
    • Forging
  • Ceramics
    • Zeer Pots
  • Knots and rope work
    • Making Rope
    • Making thread
  • Clothing
  • Toys
    • Ozark Home Made Toys
  • Leather work
  • Metal Work
    • Brazing
    • Vises
    • Cold chisels
    • Metal shears and snips
    • Cutting screw threads
    • Cutting metal
    • Drilling metal
    • Filing Metal
    • Reaming metal
  • Papermaking
  • Engraving
  • Photography, Old Time
  • Shoe Making
  • Soap making
  • Stone work and gem cutting
    • Lapidary Work
  • Tool making
  • Weaving, Needlework & dyes
    • homespun Textiles
    • Swedish Embroidery
    • Wool Dying
    • Feather Bedding
  • Woodworking
    • Wood Carving
    • Making a stepladder
    • Colonial wood crafts
• Small Rural Industry
  • Chemistry
    • Making Lye
    • Old Time Chemistry
    • Toiletries
  • Metalurgy
    • Assaying Ores
    • Alloys
    • Parting
    • Electroplating
    • Foils
    • Gilding and Silvering
    • Iron and Steel
  • Glass
    • Making & Coloring Glass
    • To cut a bottle
  • Producing stone dust
  • Meat and food processing
    • Cheese making
    • Smoking Meat
    • Sausage & cold cuts
    • Pickles
    • Jams & jellies
      • Jelly Making
    • Cider
    • Fermentation
      • Beers & ales
      • Wines
      • Vinegars
      • Industrial Acids, Test Papers & Waters
      • Fixed Oils & Animal Fats
      • Yeasts for Baking
    • Distillation
      • Essential Oils & Waters
  • Silk Worm Raising
  • Misc. How to Do It
    • Waterproofing canvas
    • Bleaching, Cleaning and Scouring
    • Old Time Various How to Do It
• Education
  • Adult education
  • Child education
    • Ornamental Penmanship
• Forest Wildcrafting