Wild Crafts cover

Live wilder · ebook & Wilding activity guide collection

Wild Crafts

Grow it. Gather it. Make it.

Repeated making with natural materials: from a familiar object to closer study of material, shape and use, and a growing relationship with what you gather and grow.

Bought from re-wild before? Log in and you only pay for the Wilding activity guides you don’t already own.

🃏 Includes a printable card set: every Wilding activity guide as an A6 card (four to an A4 sheet) to spread out, plan with or use for a lucky dip. See a sample

The ebook
50 Wilding activity guides as printable PDFs
Templates and charts the Wilding activity guides need
A printable card set: every guide as an A6 card

Coming soon. Jay is giving this book and its Wilding activity guides a final proofread before they go on sale as downloads. Ask to be told when they're ready.

Safety first. Outdoor activities carry real risks. Each Wilding activity guide has safety notes, but you are responsible for yourself and anyone in your care. Supervise children, get permission, never eat anything you cannot identify with certainty, and only light fires where it is allowed and safe.

The Wilding activity guides in this collection

Create culture

Collecting natural curiosities

Leaf printingCreate culture

Creating shared spaces

MandalaCreate culture

Art with natural materials

Making wood ‘cookies’Create culture

Tree spiritCreate culture

Making a stick frameCreate culture

Making an elder pencilCreate culture

Making a paintbrushCreate culture

Making natural inkCreate culture

Making a feather quill penCreate culture

Natural sounds & instruments

Making a sycamore whistleCreate culture

Making & using a bullroarerCreate culture

Making a kazooCreate culture

Natural jewellery

Making beadsCreate culture

Making a bracelet from natural cordageCreate culture

Natural decorations

Making a dream catcherCreate culture

Making a hanging mobileCreate culture

Making a wandCreate culture

Making a fat lampCreate culture

Making an incense bundleCreate culture

Live wilder

Techniques for cutting & carving with a sheath knife

Splitting wood along it’s grain with a knife in reversed gripLive wilder

Thumb push & pivot techniquesLive wilder

Shin pull techniqueLive wilder

Wrist push techniqueLive wilder

Thumb pull techniqueLive wilder

Reinforced pull techniqueLive wilder

Practical applications of cutting & carving techniques

Making a depression with a sheath knifeLive wilder

Making a hole with a sheath knifeLive wilder

Cutting line with a sheath knifeLive wilder

Techniques for cutting & carving with a small camp axe

Splitting wood with a small camp axe & malletLive wilder

Carving with a small camp axeLive wilder

Carving with a crook knifeLive wilder

Tool care & maintenance

Sharpening & caring for a sheath knifeLive wilder

Sharpening & caring for a small camp axeLive wilder

Sharpening & caring for a crook knifeLive wilder

Woodcraft

How to make a “try” stickLive wilder

Wooden tools

Making a wooden malletLive wilder

Making an improvised bow sawLive wilder

Making & using a palm drillLive wilder

Useful campcraft items

Making a clothes pegLive wilder

Making a large pegLive wilder

Making a candle holderLive wilder

Making a crook knife caseLive wilder

Cooking & eating utensils

Making tongsLive wilder

Making a butter spreaderLive wilder

Making a spatulaLive wilder

Making a wooden spoonLive wilder

Making a chopping boardLive wilder

Tools and making

Making a saw horseLive wilder Carving pacing togglesLive wilder Making a leather tinder pouchLive wilder

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Safety, and where the Wilding activity guides come from

Look after yourself and others. Outdoor activities carry real risks: fire, tools, water, weather, heights, plants, fungi, animals and getting lost. Every Wilding activity guide includes safety notes, but you are responsible for your own safety and for anyone in your care. Supervise children closely, get the landowner's permission, follow the Countryside Code, never eat anything you cannot identify with complete certainty, and only light fires where it is allowed and safe. If in doubt, leave it out.

With gratitude to the lineage. Wilding and its Practice Keys are inspired by the work of Jon Young and colleagues: the core routines of nature connection in the 8 Shields approach, also known as Coyote Mentoring, shared in Coyote's Guide to Connecting with Nature (Young, Haas & McGown). Many of the Wilding activity guides grew from those routines.

These ways of noticing and belonging are far older than any book. They grow from the knowledge of Indigenous and land-based peoples around the world, who have lived in close relationship with the land for thousands of years and have kept that knowledge alive, often in the face of great loss. Jon Young describes 8 Shields as built on patterns of nature connection he found in Indigenous cultures around the world, and on what his mentors taught him, including the teachings passed down through Tom Brown Jr. from Grandfather Stalking Wolf. Our own ancestors in these islands once knew the land in this way too.

I offer Wilding with deep respect and thanks to all of them. It does not claim or copy any culture's ceremonies or sacred practices. It is a UK way of carrying forward simple, shared human ways of paying attention, giving thanks and belonging to a place. — Jay