Crafting as Worldbuilding: Make Objects From a Universe That Doesn’t Exist

Instead of Writing Lore, Build It

Writers create worlds through text. You’re going to create worlds through objects. A well-crafted artifact tells you about the culture that made it, the materials available in that universe, the technology level, the aesthetic values, the daily concerns of its inhabitants—all without a single word of exposition.

This is worldbuilding from the outside in: instead of inventing a universe and then describing it, you make objects that prove the universe exists. The universe becomes real because its stuff is real.

The Power of Material Evidence

Why Objects Beat Text

Tangibility: You can hold an artifact from your fictional world. It has weight, texture, age. It exists in three dimensions.

Implied Depth: One object suggests thousands. A single coin implies an economy, a mint, metallurgy, trade routes, governments, and the daily life of everyone who touches coins.

Show Don’t Tell: The ultimate show-don’t-tell. A weathered prayer book tells you about religion, literacy, material culture, and personal faith without saying “in this world, people are religious.”

Collaborative Imagination: Viewers fill in the gaps. Their imagination meets your object and builds the world with you.

No Exposition Required: You never have to write “The Gleaming Empire was known for their brass-working techniques.” You just show the brass artifact.

Types of Worldbuilding Objects

Core Principles of Worldbuilding Through Objects

1. Consistency Creates Credibility

All objects from your universe should share:

• Material palette: What resources are available? (bronze age, plastic-abundant, crystal-based)
• Aesthetic language: What do they think is beautiful? (geometric, organic, ornate, minimal)
• Technology level: What can they make? (hand-tools, industrial, impossible materials)
• Cultural markers: What symbols, patterns, or motifs repeat?
• Wear patterns: How do things age in this world? (rust, magic decay, bio-degradation)

Example Universe - “The Coral Republics”:

• Material: Shell, coral, pearl, salvaged sea metals
• Aesthetic: Wave patterns, spiral forms, blue-green palette
• Tech: Waterproof everything, pressure-resistant, bio-luminescent
• Culture: Maritime symbols, tide calendars, depth markers
• Wear: Salt corrosion, barnacle growth, water staining

2. Age and History Matter

Objects should show:

• Manufacturing marks: How was it made? (hand-carved, molded, grown, printed)
• Use wear: Who used this and how? (handle worn smooth, edges chipped from use)
• Repairs: What broke? How did they fix it? (patches, alternative materials)
• Patina: How does time work here? (rust, magic fade, crystallization)
• Layers: Has it been modified, repurposed, inherited?

Aging Tells Story:

• Fresh object: New culture, recent event, unused/special
• Moderately worn: Daily use, valued enough to maintain
• Heavily worn: Ancient, precious, or too poor to replace
• Repaired: Scarcity, sentimentality, skill of repair culture

3. Function Implies Culture

How an object works tells you about the people:

4. Scale and Material Choices Define the World

Material availability shapes everything:

• Wood-abundant world: Different architecture, tools, fire culture than stone-world
• Metal-scarce world: Weapons are status symbols, tools are precious
• Magic-material world: Completely different craft possibilities
• Synthetic-only world: No natural materials, everything manufactured

Scale reveals priorities:

• Miniature religious objects: Personal, private faith
• Massive currency: Different relationship to wealth
• Tiny books: Literacy is precious, paper is scarce
• Enormous everyday items: Different-sized people, or ceremonial daily life

Techniques by Object Type

Currency and Trade Objects

Why currency is worldbuilding gold:

• Everyone uses it = represents whole culture
• Shows what they value (precious metals, shells, time, energy)
• Government or authority implied
• Art and propaganda combined
• Reveals technology level (minting, materials, anti-counterfeiting)

Making Fictional Currency:

Design Considerations:

• What symbols represent authority in this world?
• What language/writing system? (can be abstract)
• What denominations? (tells you about economy)
• Anti-counterfeiting features? (security = technology level)
• Wear patterns (new vs circulated tells stories)

Aging Currency:

• Coins: Wire brush, vinegar patina, selective polishing for wear
• Paper: Tea/coffee staining, edge wear, fold lines, ink fade
• Mixed: Buried briefly, handled with dirty hands, pocket wear

Documents and Books

Document types and what they reveal:

• Letters: Personal relationships, literacy levels, postal systems
• Legal documents: Law, bureaucracy, property concepts
• Religious texts: Belief systems, sacred language, book arts
• Scientific notes: Knowledge systems, notation, observation methods
• Maps: Geography, exploration, perspective (what’s centered?)
• Recipes/Instructions: Daily life, food culture, measurement systems
• Newspapers: Current events, media, literacy, propaganda
• Identification: Government control, population tracking, identity concepts

Creating Believable Documents:

1. Language/Writing System:
   • Use real script from another language you don’t know (Georgian, Thai, Amharic)
   • Create geometric symbol system
   • Use English but stylized/alternate letters
   • Mirror or rotate familiar alphabets
   • Combine systems (numbers in one, text in another)
2. Paper/Material:
   • Stained with tea, coffee, turmeric (age + color)
   • Handmade paper (texture, deckle edges)
   • Unusual materials (bark, fabric, thin metal)
   • Wrong texture for our world (too smooth, too rough)
3. Writing Instrument Evidence:
   • Ink bleed, smudges, crossed-out words (personal, hasty)
   • Perfect printing (official, mechanical)
   • Burn marks, embossing (special processes)
   • Multiple hands/colors (edited, annotated, collaborative)
4. Aging and Use:
   • Fold lines, corner wear
   • Water damage, stains
   • Margin notes, underlining
   • Repairs (tape from their world—what does that look like?)
   • Pressed flowers, other inclusions

Binding and Presentation:

• Scrolls: Ancient, ceremonial, or different reading culture
• Codex (book form): Like ours, or totally different proportion
• Loose sheets in folder: Bureaucratic, temporary, working documents
• Accordion fold: Asian-influenced, or practical for their material
• Weird binding: Non-human hands, magic-opened, or alternative physics

Tools and Technology

Tools reveal:

• What work do people do daily?
• What materials are workable in this world?
• What problems need solving?
• How sophisticated is manufacturing?
• Who uses tools? (gendered, classed, species-specific)

Creating Fictional Tools:

Method 1: Modify Real Tools

• Start with real tool
• Change one aspect (material, size, extra prongs)
• Add decorative elements from your world’s aesthetic
• Weather appropriately
• Result: Familiar but wrong = otherworldly

Method 2: Solve Fictional Problems

• Invent a problem this world has (harvesting floating fruit, mining clouds)
• Design tool that would solve it
• Consider: What materials? How heavy? Who carries it?
• Build it functionally or as sculpture
• Result: Pure invention grounded in logic

Method 3: Reverse-Engineer from Material

• Your world has unique material (crystal that holds light, living metal)
• What tools work with that material?
• What tools are made FROM that material?
• Build showing material’s properties
• Result: Material-driven worldbuilding

Materials for Tool-Making:

• Wood, leather, metal: Traditional, but weather them strangely
• Polymer clay: Sculpt impossible materials, paint realistically
• 3D printing: Precise weird geometries
• Found objects: Combine wrong things (circuit board + antler)
• Resin casting: Create “materials” that don’t exist (glowing, color-shifting)

Religious and Ritual Objects

Why religious objects are worldbuilding powerhouses:

• Reveal belief systems without explaining them
• Often beautiful = culture’s best craft
• Symbolic language packed with meaning
• Used in specific ways = ritual glimpses
• Can be strange without explanation (faith is mysterious)

Types of Religious Objects:

Creating Sacred Objects:

1. Decide Core Beliefs:
   • Nature worship = natural materials, organic forms
   • Ancestor veneration = images, names, personal items
   • Abstract deity = geometric, symbolic, no images
   • Multiple gods = lots of variation, which god is this for?
   • Technology worship = circuit boards as sacred geometry
2. Material Choices:
   • Precious materials = wealthy religion, formal hierarchy
   • Simple materials = ascetic values, accessibility
   • Specific material = sacred (their world’s version of gold, myrrh)
   • Forbidden material = what’s taboo tells you about values
3. Symbols and Iconography:
   • Develop 3-5 symbols that repeat
   • Each can have variation but core meaning
   • Combine in patterns (sacred geometry)
   • Let viewers interpret (mystery is good)
4. Evidence of Use:
   • Wear from hands in prayer position
   • Candle wax, incense residue
   • Kiss-wear on icon (polished spot)
   • Offering stains
   • Repair = too sacred to replace

Personal Effects and Everyday Objects

Most powerful worldbuilding: The mundane made strange.

Everyday Items to Make Otherworldly:

• Keys: What do they lock? What shape? How complex is security?
• Cups/Vessels: What do they drink? How? Social ritual of drinking?
• Combs/Grooming: Hair care = what do bodies look like? Vanity? Hygiene?
• Games/Toys: How do they play? Childhood in this world?
• Eyewear: How do they augment senses? Fashion? Practical?
• Timepieces: How do they measure time? What units? Portable?
• Lighting: Candles, lamps, magic—how do they see in dark?
• Writing implements: What writes? On what? How precious is writing?

Making the Familiar Strange:

1. Change the material (cup made of metal they can grow, organic glass)
2. Change the proportion (too large, too small, wrong ratio)
3. Add function (cup that also tells time, key that also plays music)
4. Remove function (looks like tool but is actually jewelry)
5. Change who uses it (human object for non-human hands)

Building a Consistent Universe

Starting Your World: The Foundation Objects

First 5 Objects to Make:

1. Currency (2-3 denominations): Establishes materials, government, economy, art style
2. Document (letter or official paper): Creates language, writing, bureaucracy
3. Religious object: Belief system, values, sacred aesthetic
4. Tool: Daily life, technology level, work culture
5. Personal item (jewelry, accessory): Individual identity, fashion, intimacy

These five create enough foundation that the next objects can reference and build on them.

Creating a Worldbuilding Bible (Through Objects)

Instead of written lore, create:

Material Palette:

• Actual samples of your world’s materials
• Show aging process for each
• Note what’s common vs precious

Color Standards:

• Paint chips of your world’s color language
• Cultural meanings (in our world, white = pure or death; what about yours?)
• Dye sources (available plants, minerals)

Symbol Library:

• Create 10-20 symbols used across objects
• Each appears in different contexts
• Viewers piece together meanings

Object Photography Standards:

• Consistent lighting, angles
• Shows scale, detail, wear
• Documents your universe visually
• Can be “catalog” or “museum collection”

Expansion Strategies

Deepen Through Variation:

• Make 5 versions of same object type showing class differences (rich vs poor cup)
• Make object types from different regions in your world
• Make same object at different time periods (show history)
• Make broken/repair versions (objects have lifespans)

Broaden Through Connection:

• Each new object references previous ones
• Currency symbols appear on documents
• Religious symbols on everyday items
• Tool shows up in artwork
• Create web of references

Tell Stories Through Sets:

• Objects from same person’s life (letter, personal item, tool they used)
• Objects from one event (battle: weapon, medal, mourning jewelry)
• Objects from a journey (passport, ticket, souvenir, journal)
• Objects from a home (kitchen items, religious corner, personal effects)

Advanced Worldbuilding Techniques

Alternative Physics and Materials

If your world has different rules:

• Gravity works differently: Objects designed for it (asymmetrical weights)
• Magic is real: Objects with magic components (visible or subtle)
• Different atmosphere: Materials that wouldn’t work here (water-soluble metal)
• Multiple moons: Calendars are complex, tide-dependent culture
• No electricity: Mechanical solutions or different power (steam, magic, biological)

Materials That Don’t Exist Here:

• Use resin + inclusions to create “magical materials”
• Polymer clay for substances with wrong properties
• Combine materials that don’t usually go together
• Paint/finish to suggest impossible properties (too light, too heavy, self-illuminating)

Non-Human Cultures

Objects made by non-human species:

• Different scale (giant or tiny)
• Different grip/manipulation (tentacles, beaks, no hands)
• Different senses prioritized (textural for blind species, ultra-bright for dark-dwellers)
• Different needs (aquatic species’ objects waterproof)
• Different lifespan (mayfly culture vs immortal culture)

Making Non-Human Objects:

• Design for wrong number of fingers
• Add sensory elements we don’t use (echolocation markers, scent indicators)
• Scale inappropriately for humans
• Beautify things we don’t care about, ignore things we find important

Collaborative Worldbuilding

Build with others:

• Each person makes objects from different region/culture in shared world
• Objects can reference each other’s creations
• Creates depth faster than solo work
• Pooled skills = more diverse object types

Rules for Shared Worlds:

1. Agree on core rules (material palette, general tech level)
2. Each person owns their region/culture
3. Trade items (shows exchange between cultures)
4. Document shared symbols vs unique ones
5. Create conflicts (war = weapons, treaties = documents)

Installation and Display

Present as:

• Museum collection: Labels, cases, curated
• Archaeological finds: Dirt still on, documentation photos
• Market stall: For sale in their world, prices in their currency
• Personal collection: Character’s belongings laid out
• Ritual space: Altar or shrine using the objects
• Interactive: Viewers can handle some items

Documentation Photography:

• In-world style: How would their culture photograph objects?
• Archaeological: Measured, cataloged, scientific
• Artistic: Moody lighting, emotional presentation
• Propaganda: Objects as national treasures
• Everyday: In-use photos, casual documentation

Project Ideas by Skill Level

Beginner: World-Starter Objects

Simple Currency Set

• Polymer clay coins with stamped designs
• 3 denominations, consistent symbols
• Age with paint and sandpaper
• Start of economic worldbuilding

Love Letter from Your World

• Handwrite on aged paper
• Fold as they would fold it
• Add wax seal with unique symbol
• Personal glimpse into relationships

Prayer Beads

• String beads in meaningful pattern
• Use colors/materials from your world
• Add charm or counter
• Portable religious object

Intermediate: Universe-Building Objects

Illuminated Manuscript Page

• Single page from religious or important text
• Create writing system
• Illustrate margins in world’s style
• Show book culture, art, beliefs

Artifact from Archaeological Dig

• Ancient object (tool, jewelry, vessel)
• Heavily aged, partially damaged
• Attached “museum card” with catalog number
• Implies deep history

Traveler’s Kit

• 5-8 small objects one person would carry
• Map, currency, writing tools, personal item, etc.
• All consistent in style
• Tells story of individual life

Advanced: Deep Universe Immersion

Historical Sequence

• Same object type across 5 time periods
• Show evolution of tech/style/culture
• Display together showing progression
• Requires deep worldbuilding

Multi-Cultural Trade Goods

• Objects from 3 different cultures in your world
• Each has distinct style/materials
• Plus hybrid objects showing cultural exchange
• Creates geopolitical depth

Museum Exhibition

• 15-20 objects curated as collection
• Typed labels, display cases
• Catalog or guide book
• Full immersive worldbuilding experience

Using Your Worldbuilding Objects

As Creative Writing Aid

• Objects before outline: Make stuff first, discover story later
• Character development: What do they carry? Own? Make?
• Plot tokens: Physical objects can be plot devices
• Setting tangibility: Show readers photos of real objects from your world

As Art Practice

• Speculative design: “What if” made physical
• Historical fiction: Objects from real past
• Alternative history: Our world but different timeline
• Future archaeology: Objects from our future

As Storytelling Without Words

• Photo essays using objects
• Social media world reveals (one object at a time)
• Interactive exhibits
• Let viewers construct narrative from evidence

As Commercial Work

• Film/TV: Props and set dressing
• RPG/Games: Concept art, physical special editions
• Museums: Speculative exhibits
• Publishing: Book marketing, special editions
• Art Galleries: Installation work
• Education: Teaching worldbuilding, history, material culture

Common Pitfalls and Solutions

Starting Right Now

You don’t need to plan an entire universe before making anything.

Start here:

1. Make a coin from a world you don’t know yet
2. Put one symbol on it you just invented
3. Age it like it’s been in pockets for decades
4. Look at it and ask: Who made this? Why? What do they value?
5. Make one more object that answers one of those questions

The world builds itself through the objects. You don’t need to know everything before you start. Make the artifacts; the universe will reveal itself.

Every object you make is an archaeological dig into a world that doesn’t exist. You’re both the ancient culture that made it and the archaeologist discovering it. You’re making evidence for imagination.

Build your universe. One object at a time. Let viewers discover it. Let them fill in the gaps. Let them wonder what else exists in the world where someone carries keys shaped like that, prays with beads made of that material, writes with those tools.

You’re not creating a world. You’re creating proof that a world exists.

Now go make something from somewhere else.