The Wand Chooses the Wizard

When my family went to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter last summer, my eldest son was lucky enough to be selected by Mr. Ollivander to be part of a wand choosing.  He was thrilled and so was I! The show was delightful (we went first thing one morning and there were not many other park guests inside the tiny shop in Hogsmeade.)  Part of the magic was seeing my son interact with Ollivander and watch his face as the choosing unfolded in the shop.  Needless to say, we shelled out the money for the interactive wand and one "basic" Harry Potter wand for my littlest.  It was worth every penny to watch the two boys cast spells throughout both HP parks.

So when the Harry Potter Party planning began, wands were an important part of the process.  I am an avid Pinterest user and started looking at and pinning tutorials.  Most of the simplest ones I saw used chopsticks.  Cheap, great size for the elementary school crowd, and I have Amazon Prime.  I ordered this set of 10 pairs (20 was a perfect number for me to decorate since we'd be hosting 15 wizards and witches in our home the day of the event) and waited the two days for UPS to arrive with my box.

The chopsticks arrived and I started crafting.  I gathered my supplies- some wand images from the internet for inspiration (bless you, Google), my glue gun, a container of wooden macrame' beads from the 70's (my mother in law gives me her old crafting goodies and I get to incorporate them in my projects), a cordless drill, some corks, a ball of  twine, some leftover jewelry making bits, and pretty much anything else I thought would make for a magical wand.

Wand picture from Reddit.  I am fairly creative, but still look at others' work for inspiration.  

I used the drill to enlarge the holes in the wooden beads so they'd slide down the length of the chopstick and fit snugly.  I only broke a couple of beads during the process.  If you decide to drill beads, go slowly and be careful.  I sliced one of my fingers with the drill bit when the bead and drill decided to get a little out of hand.  I decided to keep the sawdust that I generated while drilling.  I ended up rolling some hot glued parts of the wands in the dust to create an unusual, organic texture.

I glued the beads in place along the length of the chopstick and would add extra drips, lines of glue, and extra swirls to make each wand unique.  Having many beads drilled ahead of time made arranging them easier.  I could choose one size and if I didn't like it I could just switch it out for another or change the spacing.  I was mindful that the children's hands were smaller than mine, so I scaled the handles accordingly, although a few wands had very long handles and decorations that extended up the shaft towards the tip.  I used a heavy glass to hold the wands upright as they cooled.  I did not want to set them down horizontally when they were still warm because I wanted to make sure the shapes I created were not distorted.

Embellished and ready to prime

These are most of the 20 wands I crafted.  I really liked the way hot glue could be used to create ridges, drips, and serpentine shapes that wrapped the wand. (bottom grouping, far left)
I encrusted one entire handle in purple glass beads.  (top grouping, second from bottom)
Twine wrapped between two beads served as a handle for the wand that chose my son. (bottom grouping, second from right)
A tiny acorn from my yard created a finial at the end of the handle of one delicate looking wand (top grouping, second from top)



The next step was to prime and paint the parts of the wands that would not be left as unfinished wood.

Primed and drying

A basic flat finish white craft paint served as my primer.  I brushed two coats on the areas I wanted to paint later.  I used a cardboard box out of my recycling stash to create a stand for the wands to sit in as the paint dried.  I used an ice pick to poke holes in the lid of the box and inserted the wands as I finished painting them.  They dried fairly quickly and were ready for their final decorative treatment.

I have quite a collection of craft paints in my garage. Luckily, many of them are wood tones, metallics, and a different shades of black.  I set up a watercolor palette with my chosen colors and started brushing.  I combined colors on some wands, chose to use only one color on others, and some I painted a with natural base color and then added a top coat in a different color.

Palette of wood tone paints

The wands with their final paint colors (and a few still in the primer stage)

I attached small printable tags to each wand with the wood, core, and length.  I got the tags from this fantastic blog On My Side of the Room.  I printed them on parchment paper, punched them out with a tag-shaped punch and tied them to the handles of the wands.  

This photo is from the On My Side of the Room blog.  I forgot to take pictures of my tags!  

With the wands finished needed to get started on my next crafting project- the Invitations.