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Wands!, make your own...but how? |
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 Jul 13 2005, 10:09 PM
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Cauldron Bottom Measurer
Posts: 112
Joined: 11:37am January 28, 2005
Location: Long Island, NY; Middlebury, VT
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You're on the right track with the dowels. It's really pretty easy, I think. You can start with a dowel of whatever length and whatever width you want. Sand down the tip a bit until it gets to the desired shape and smoothness. I've always wrapped masking tape around the end of the "wand" to create some cushioning for the handle (you can shape it easily this way). For the color, I guess you could use paint of some sort, but I like using wood stain, rubbing it into the wood with an old cloth until I get the color I want. I prefer it to paint just because looks more natural and the grain stays visible. Then, I wrapped the masking tape handle with strips of brown cloth, and it gave it a certain old, well-worn look, I thought. I know some people have used clay, and that might suit you better.
And if you're desperate, you can go the route two of my friends took: take thickish paintbrush, paint whatever color you want (or leave it its original color) and wrap some paper around the brush. It looked fine from a distance! 
So anyway, that's what I've done. It doesn't look as "polished" as other wands, but I like it :rav:
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"Bombardment, barrage, curtain-fire, mines, gas, tanks, machine-guns, hand-grenades—words, words, words, but they hold the horror of the world."
--Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front
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Jul 13 2005, 10:10 PM
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Being Eaten by the Pea Soup
Posts: 33
Joined: 9:44pm July 13, 2005
Location: In search of the Half-Blood Prince... he has a date with my enormous Spork Of Doom!
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There are a couple of ways I've made wands, and all of them would probably be considered unsafe. :-P
Let nature provide. Find the straightest wand--sized stick you can in your local park or under a tree; the best time to look is after a big thunderstorm, when larger branches get knocked off of trees. Shave off the bark with a pocketknife or a really good paring knife, just like peeling a carrot. You could leave the bark on if you really want, because it will peel off in your hand as the stick dries out. Sand the stick with sandpaper, rub in stain if you wand, and voila!, a wand.
If the core of the branch is soft enough, you can hollow out some at the handle-end and glue in a fake "magical substance" wand core. - Phoenix feather: Cut out a long leaf-shape from a 2- to 3-inch piece of wide gold or red ribbon (the giftwrap kind). Take a twist-tie (the kind that comes with plastic garbage bags) and glue it down the center of the ribbon-leaf. Then cut fringe on either edge of the ribbon-leaf to give it a feathery effect. To stick the feather in the wand, you may need to cut it in pieces until you find one that will fit in the hole you made. :-P
- Dragon heartstring: Cut a short piece of green or brown leather thong.
- Unicorn hair: Cut up a length of white satin or other fancy woven ribbon. The ribbon should fray, yielding wispy white "hairs" you can glue into the end of the wand.
Dowel wand. I assume that's what Britta, goddess of Harry Potter party preparations and forum moderator, used for her wand, shown with a description of the manufacturing process at the bottom of this page: http://www.britta.com/hogwarts/decor/index.html. You can get a dowel and the wooden beads at most craft stores, and while you're there I recommend getting special wood glue to hold it together. 
Hope this helps!
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~~ The Chickens Are Restless ~~
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 Jul 14 2005, 09:57 AM
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Flesh-Eating-Slug Catcher
Posts: 197
Joined: 3:55pm July 5, 2005
Location: Ridding the world of those nasty slugs -- *IMMOBILUS* (gotcha!)
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I have a feather wand....It's a Birch branch with a hole drilled in one end, with the feathers glued into the hole.
My wand has a Blue Jay tail feather and a pheasant wing feather (each has it's own Native American spiritual meaning)...using the Birch branch also has it's own spiritual meaning. Tied around the base of the wand are blue and white ribbons. It's really pretty!
(By the way, the feathers were found, not plucked -- no animals were harmed in the making of this wand!)
Normally these types of wands are used in Native American smudging rituals where you can smudge anything from yourself to your house. (Not to get all technical or anything, but it's basically a cleansing ritual).
My smudge is a combination of dried white sage, cedar, organic tobacco, sweetgrass, and lavender. (Yes, each one of the ingredients has a spiritual component).
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"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate; our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us."
Marianne Williamson
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Jul 14 2005, 01:08 PM
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Perusing the Magical Menagerie
Posts: 88
Joined: 9:47pm January 28, 2005
Location: Oklahoma City
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I made myself a wand a couple days ago. I went to the hardware store and bought two different-shaped dowels, one thinner, and one much thicker, for the handle. I measured out how much handle and how much wand I wanted, then cut them with a big kitchen knife. I sanded down the edges and made sure the wand was smooth, and then I stuck the handle to the wand with wood glue and put it in a clamp for about a half hour. Then I sanded down the handle in places, because I wanted that nice curvy shape. After that, I stained it with a dark mahogany, and 8 hours later, I waxed the wand part, so that it would be smoother and slightly lighter than the handle. It looks really nice and was my first woodworking project ever. :)
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"I'm Hermione Granger. And, you are?"
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Jul 15 2005, 01:12 AM
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Coach of the Hogwarts Equestrian Team
Posts: 1,913
Joined: 7:02pm January 28, 2005
Location: boiling snape in a cauldron of shampoo
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those sound great, I think i'll make a stop at home depot and pick up some wood stain and sandpaper...what's this about wax? I think i'll just get a tub o' finish...  would anyone happen to know of any alternatives for wood stain?
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Jul 15 2005, 03:56 PM
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Being Eaten by the Pea Soup
Posts: 33
Joined: 9:44pm July 13, 2005
Location: In search of the Half-Blood Prince... he has a date with my enormous Spork Of Doom!
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FreedomStar, I tried using tea once to stain the wand, but it didn't work very well. I figured that if it could be used to stain/age paper, then tea might stain wood.... but the wood was too dense, I think, to soak in the tea stain. Oh, well. But other than advising against staining with tea, I dunno what to tell you. Most of my stick-wands aren't stained, and I like the effect of the natural, sanded wood, especially on one wand made from catalpa that has a nice dark (almost black) grain running through the much paler wood.
Good luck! :)
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~~ The Chickens Are Restless ~~
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