Importance of crafting your own ritual tools

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[Benjamin]

Not having any experience in this area I couldn't possibly comment on the necessity of crafting your own tools, but I read this post a couple of days ago and some thoughts have crossed my mind.

If your abilities were such that you could create the most beautifully intricate tools with exquisite designs and fine carvings I do not doubt you would relish the opportunity; however if your skills only extend to crafting basic, functional items with no flair or flamboyance then by making your own tools you may be compromising on your own desire.

It may be your wish to have a solid gold dagger encrusted with diamonds and rubies but the limits to your skill may prevent the crafting of such an instrument, would it not be reasonable therefore to simply buy the item or have it made for you?

The other issue is one of status, if it is so that all tools must be crafted by the practitioner then it stands to reason that the skilled craftsmen and women will have the finest tools, while those with no skills in this area will have to use poorly made tools. Does this not set the craftspeople apart from everyone else?

Perhaps another way would be to bind the items to you, to make them truly yours. Could this not be performed as part of a ritual? I even read somewhere that the addition to bodily fluids to your tools creates a powerful bind to their user! Messy I know, but effective? Perhaps someone who has experience in this area might like to comment on its viability.

Benjamin

[Lorraine]

I was hoping to get some thoughts about crafting your own ritual tools...  I initially read about this and brushed it off, since handiwork is definitely not a strength for me.  It seems like most of the people I've spoken to off of the Internet seem to be somewhat indifferent about whether or not crafting your own tools is necessary and that it's really up to the individual.  Some books suggest just "customizing" your premade tools with carvings/etc. and leave it at that, but some take it much further...

I have crafted items on occasion and probably will do in future.  I don't see it as a necessity.  Sometimes there's something very satisfying about finding the item which feels just right - not just the one which you think will 'do'. Of course if this is a tool or item you feel the need to have soon that isn't going to work.  But I had one of those moments over an altar cloth just recently.  I had one in mind for my Apollo altar for a while but needlecrafts are not my area.  When I have tried to make an altar cloth elsewhere in the past it felt a little shoddy. 

So... I looked around in various places from time to time and couldn't find anything that fitted, (in dimensions or its style).  Then I saw one in a shop in Cyprus last week.  It was embroidered with 7-string lyres on the corners and also had an olive leaf motif (not so Apollonian, certainly Greek) and it was around the right size.  It's certainly arguable whether it was 'needed' as the altar didn't have one before, but there was effort involved in looking out for something, however vaguely, for months on end.

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