I am a huge Harry Potter fan, and in my country, quality HP merchandises aren't very available. So about one year ago, when I randomly stumbled upon a wood-carving video on Youtube, I thought to myself, "I should try making some wands on my own".
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And so I did.
At the beginning, it had no clue what to do, or how to do it. But I was having fun, so I kept trying. I saw some more videos and got a basic idea on wood carving, and with time, things started to become easier.
I always got jealous watching those fancy dremels and lathe machines and other whats-its-name power tools on fancy Youtube videos. But I guess a knife and some sandpapers will always be more than enough for beginners like me.
Woodworking is really fun, and it helps a lot to keep your mind busy and peaceful. If you love woodworking but don't have the fancy tools, I suggest you start doing it with whatever you have lying around. You won't regret it!
I don't have access to any power tools, so these are all I used for my carvings
Image credits: www.walmart.com
This is the very first wand I made
All my wands are made of lightweight wood
This is one of my older wands, when I was suffering from depression. The design contains a semicolon at the hilt-end of the wand which stands for mental health awareness
Sometimes I use wires to decorate my wands
I mostly gave away the wands to my friends and loved ones as presents. Wands make for amazing gifts!
With this one, I tried to replicate a Pottermore design
I started to learn new and new techniques as I gained more experience
Gradually, I started to approach more complex designs
I generally make wands of my own design, rather than replicating one from the movies
All these wands are made of the same wood, kerosene. I chose it because it's the only type of wood available here which is cheap enough. Kerosene is also very easy to work with
I have made more than thirty wands in the last year
Some were simple and elegant
Some were a bit ambitious (and probably failed :( )
Many of my wands have Nordic influence. I have used "the elder futhark" in many of my designs
This wand was inspired by the elder wand, although the end result doesn't bear much similarities
With time, my finishing got better, although it's still very ameture
I tried to get my hands on some wood stains and sealers, but I couldn't
So I had to paint my wands using Acrylic colors
To get a classic wood texture, the coloring process had to be complex and of multiple steps
But I am happy with the result I got using what I had
This is the last wand that I made. I quite like it!
