This spellcraft hullaballoo sounds really interesting 0: Same with the sketches :>

Best wishes!

Yay!! I can't wait till tomorrow! Also that spell craft stuff sounds pretty awesome.

Can't wait to see my sketch, I'm super excited!

Some of your other ideas are pretty intriguing. As far as jewelry goes, what kind of techniques were you thinking of using? I was wondering about the possibility of using bone to produce turned/carved objects, like with a lathe or a drill. For example, using some method of hollowing out small pieces of bone to make an empty chamber that you could insert something in: essentially a bone pendant.

I really don't know anything at all about spellcraft, I'm afraid. But lately I have been rekindling my interest in Mayan iconography and hieroglyphics. The Mayan cosmology and mythology is heavily anthropomorphic, as is the script:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_script
This stuff might offer some inspiration to you, whether you're interested in religious objects or more artwork.

I'd love to work with bone, though I think it would have to be very large pieces, and I'm not sure it would be financially feasible to buy pieces that large for turning. I've been using a dremel, though a lathe would definitely be faster for some of what I'm doing. I just don't have one to use at the moment. I've been working with African Blackwood, Ebony, Olivewood, and Zebrawood so far. I made a very successful ring as a personal project, and I'm working on a set of pendant samples that will be raw semi-precious gemstones and minerals set into wooden bases.
I'm also doing some beaded stuff, so my pendants will be strung onto lightly beaded necklaces, and I'll be making some bracelets in different designs out of different natural seed/nut, and stone beads, with metal accent pieces.

Mayan script is fascinating! I've mostly been focusing on Anglo-Saxon, and Gaelic languages, in runic and ogham scripts. Ogham is a bit tough though, since it's really old and predates a lot of Gaelic languages that are properly documented. Anglo-saxon runic is a lot easier to work with reliably. I used to study Ancient Greek, and Egyptian languages because they were so well documented, but that was years ago and I have sort of moved on to other cultures. I studied Mayan and Aztec cultures around the same time, but never got too deep into their scripts. I should really look into that again!

All of this sounds super interesting to me. I have a interest in the occult, although I try not to dabble in any sort of practical parts- I have a healthy respect and caution for it, so I stick to theory.,otherwise I'd probably awaken Cthulhu and doom us all. I'd be real interested to see what you come up with along those lines.

Occult studies and any esoteric sciences can be really tough to get into because they can be so extreme, and can expose you to a lot of risks, spiritual, emotional and practical(like unsettling people enough that they start to cause problems for you.) When I first got into it it was something of a nightmare for me because most people I knew just did not understand, and I took a lot of flack before learning the hard way that practicing this stuff is something that should be kept mostly a secret from other people. You can learn it really gradually though, and start by practicing very safe spells to reduce the spiritual and emotional risks. Some spells are really high risk, and others have almost no risk at all, so you can choose the easier low-risk ones and graduate up to more difficult ones. Most people choose not to get into black magic or psychic studies because most of it is very high risk and frequently involves ingredients that can be difficult to find, expensive, risky to collect(like graveyard dirt), or dangerous to work with(like plants from the nightshade family.) Though in the case of some ingredients, it's reasonable to make substitutions by using other ingredients with similar properties or functions.
Honestly when you get started learning this stuff, it's mostly just reading about different herbs, stones, lunar phases, resins, oils, astrological timing systems, languages, etc. Since you have to have a decent working knowledge of these things, and a large collection of different supplies, it takes a while before you really start practicing any serious spellcraft. It can be expensive too, if you need to import supplies that can't be found in your area, or you have to buy a lot of tools. It all depends on what you get into.

I can recommend a great collection of relatively inexpensive books if you want to learn to practice, or if you just want to read about it. c:

Omg books, yesplz!

I'm just scared I'd let something loose- I won't use a Ouija board for that reason, cause I don't like fooling around with things I don't/can't understand. And yeah, I can see how people would look askance at spellcraft; I've had similar reactions when reading and/or taking notes on tarot, astrology, runes, stuff like that. I got a lecture for reading an occult encyclopedia on a park bench :[

Here, I recommend all of these:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/93438
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/273471
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/151562 (This one might be treading the line with you in terms of what you actually want to practice, but it's a good read.)
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/204906 (This one is all black magic, so definitely stuff you aren't inclined to practice, but that said it would be a good read because it would give you a better sense of the actual risks and complications. It sounds like you're mostly afraid of what you don't know... so maybe this would be good just to kind of show you what's out there. Knowing something is the best way to protect yourself from it.)
http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B00.....UTF8&psc=1

http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books.....mp;ikwsec=Home (This is just the book I personally use when translating and writing scripts.)

Those books by Sophia DeGregorio are not the be-all-end-all, but I like her as an author to recommend to beginners because she doesn't just focus on one cultural practice, she covers a lot of different ones, and she doesn't limit the reader to "safe" spells or avoid black magic. She assumes the reader is responsible enough not to just dive in to those things, and offers that information along with a lot of safety warnings so that the reader can easily decide what they really want to get on their hands, yeknow? I also like her because she lists all her sources and makes recommendations for other resources, instead of just spouting a bunch of personal opinions or skepticism without any sources(I see this ALL THE TIME when looking for new sources of information.)
She also avoids most "New Age" stuff, and instead builds her books on a solid foundation of research into much older traditional methods, scripts and practices. Not that you should limit yourself to that, but anything you construct should have a solid foundation, and most "New Age" stuff is unsourced, based on misinterpretation, fantasy and popular opinion, riddled with disrespect for the cultures it claims to be working from, or quite literally just made up. (A lot of it works from 'Americanized' Native American, Hindu, and Buddhist practices that have already been put through a sort of white filter, and I find that to be in very poor taste considering what we have done as a race to the people who traditionally practiced those, to put it lightly. Not that those cultural practices can't or shouldn't be studied, but they should be studied at the source and incorporated into your workings respectfully, with a lot of consideration.)
I personally focus mainly on Anglo-saxon, Ancient Greek, and Celtic practices, with some slight influences from traditional Hoodoo and Native American workings. It's mostly reflective of my family's cultural history, and I made most of my choices based on the origins of my oldest family members and ancestors. It's a very personal choice, and ultimately you have to go with what feels right to you.

I also don't use an Ouija board. I use a lot of other methods though. Ouija boards are actually a good place to start because you can protect yourself more easily and practically in the process than you can with a lot of other methods. Again, you do what you're comfortable with. If Ouija boards make you uncomfortable, then don't use them. c: There are so many different methods available for just about any spellcraft or psychic endeavour, you should be able to find one or more others that work better for you.

*saves links* Now that I've finally got a proper computer, I can reply!

I am afraid of what I don't know- maybe it's due to the number of paranormal things I've watched/read, but the idea of actually practicing spellcraft frightens me. It shouldn't, since I won't even get a new sort of pet without doing several months of intense research, let alone plunging directly into black magic.

I agree with your assessment of "New Age" stuff. It's really not the most reliable information out there, although that doesn't mean it's not *interesting*, it just means that it really shouldn't be taken as gospel, which I think a lot of people do. They assume that, if someone wrote it down, it must be true. If you're reading up on things related to other cultures, then respect for that culture needs to be foremost, not the appropriative, disrespectful "white gaze" version that's so common online. If it's going to be studied, it should be done respectfully, none of this ~magical First Nations~ stereotyping. I say this as a white person with two animal totems (for lack of a better term).

Anglo-Saxon and Celtic practices are an area I'm especially interested in, because of my family's roots (we're Scottish, Irish and English).

Yeah, Ouija boards make me nervous, yet I can handle tarot fine :p Go figure. Although I won't use the Necronomicon tarot deck I have- I know it's based on HP Lovecraft's work, but it's still a pretty dark deck; I just have it because I'm a fan of the mythos, and of the artwork on the cards.