Hearty Wizard Wand

W-a-a-a-a-y back in April, Julie issued a Group Challenge. We were to create our own Wizard Wand, like one you would own as a student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. She pointed us to some directions on the web that appeared pretty straight forward. But it seems it took all four of us a bit of time to figure out just how to make our wands.

My first step was to pop over to Pottermore and go through the first chapters to get sorted into my house and find out what kind of wand chose me - for the wand always chooses the wizard! Turns out I am in the house of Ravenclaw (hooray!) and my wand is an 11-3/4" pear wood solid wand with a core of phoenix feather.

So while Julie was visiting one weekend, we hunkered down in my studio and started the process. I wanted to make mine as authentic as possible, matching the wand that chose me in Pottermore. Julie had already begun to make her wands, so was giving me some pointers. I did my best to follow the directions. It's a bit tricky to get the hot glue to fill up the tube. We ended up having to poke some extra holes in the middle of the wand and get some glue in through the side. 

I checked online to see what pear wood looks like and tried my best to mix paint to mimic the wood. Tricky, that. Julie had to help me. The fun part was decorating the wand with hot glue after the first coat of paint. I like the way my hearts and vines turned out. The holes I had to make to get the extra glue became knots in the wood. Looks pretty neat!

One thing I wish I had done is put a feather into my tube before filling it. I didn't think about that until too late. Shucks. Of course, finding a phoenix willing to give me a tail feather did present a problem. My final bit of fun was to use some glittery hot glue on the tip of the wand. It looks like it's ready to make some magic happen!

Of course, the best magic is the fun the four of us have together as we plan and execute our projects. I imagine you'll be seeing three more wizard wands in the near future.

Now ... 

Swish and Flick!

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