Inspired by several films, these magic wands are wood turned on a lathe, sanded, stained, and coated.
The Elder wand.
With a core of thestral tail hair, the wand was fifteen inches long and made of Elder wood. Loyal to the witch or wizard who has ‘won’ it from its previous owner, the Elder wand was the cause of a huge amount of conflict between those desperate to claim it for their own!
From the wizarding world of Harry Potter, this particular wand was created purely for the films based on limited details from the books.
I have made two of these Wands so far, researched the ergonomics from the films and specifications from the books. It measures 15 inches and has knobbly nodules at intervals.
The First wand that I made, I started off with the lathe. I didn’t have Elder wood on hand so I used a European Oak dowel 25mm diameter. The dowel was marked out for its spacings that would form the nodules, and the in between parts that would have been turned and thinned down. However, due to the length, thickness and no support in the middle, as I pressed the cutting tool into the centre and started to reduce the diameter, it began to flex and unfortunately snap.
I quickly resorted to a familiar practice and carved out the sections, then a sanding down with a 60 grit paper, followed by 100 grit until I was satisfied.
I used a black marker pen to ‘dot’ all over the wand, then used a rotary tool with a small ball shaped abrasive bit to bore out a dimple shape where every ‘dot’ was placed.
I gave it a once over with the 100 grit sanding paper, then two coats of water based varnish.
A white band of white primer undercoat was brushed around the handle area, the symbols (depicted from the films) were then drafted up and transferred to the white band and outlined with a black fine tipped marker once happy with the position.
This wand was super fun to make, however I do hope to construct a stabilising device to stop flexing of the thin wood while fastened within the lathes jaw.
Film Appearances:
It appears in the following films
- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
- Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindlewald
- Fantastic Beasts: The secrets of Dumbledore
Wielders of the wand
Has been wielded by Grindlewald, Voldemort, Dumbledore, Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter… of course!]
Small Collection of wands inspired by The world of Harry Potter.
Materials: Maple, Ash, Poplar, Black Walnut and Birch ply as an experiment.
These wands were all turned on the Lathe.
They weren’t as long as the Elder wand so there wasn’t the wobble. I also didn’t go as thin. I tried a few different ideas using shape and decorative design as demonstrated in the images.
This particular wand was constructed out of Poplar or Tulipwood. I chose a regular shape, but it bestowed a carefully detailed engraving coiled around the shaft in the form of ivy.
Inspiration for the wand came from the character Hermione. Its carved detail is very captivating.
Octo-wand
This wand was a commission, requested that it had to be ‘Octopus’ themed.
I did a couple of rough drawings of some ideas which didn’t take too long. The material I used for this piece was called Purpleheart.
I reduced as much material as I could on the lathe, then the rest was carved.
At the base, a hole was drilled out, and a separate plug formed to bung this hole, all of which created for the wands ‘Core’ to be inserted into (In Harry Potter lore, this gave the wand its power).
To finish off, it was sanded finely with a 120/240 grit sanding paper, then sprayed with a clear satin varnish.