There have been questions about how I make wands. So here’s what I do in order.
First, harvest wood. I help neighbours and friends clear away branches of pruned or felled trees, or I find branches in my own backyard that opens onto a creek. I have to let it dry out completely, I have wood sitting around for several months to a year.
The branches need to be cut to length that best shows the best features of the wand be it rings, bark, knots, splits, gradients, etc. The wand’s tip is shaped, it cannot be sharp, but it isn’t attractive if it’s left blunt. This stage requires cutting, shaving, sanding, etc.
Next, I introduce coconut oil to bring out the woods’ natural tones. I often have to melt the coconut butter with low heat, because I store it in the fridge. I have to let that cure after the wood has been coated.
When the wood is dry again, it gets coated in shellac. When the shellac is dry, it needs to be sanded. It gets shellacked a second time, and sanded a final time. To speed up this process, I put the shellac and shaped branches into a trough, and wipe the excess shellac off of the wands before I rest them on racks to dry.
Before I begin to decorate, there is one last practical thing to do to the wand. I attach a link to the butt of each future handle. This link can be used to customize the wand with charms that not only make it more unique, but can further the wielder’s focus when casting.
Then it’s finally time to decorate (my favorite part)! I line up several fabric swatches and cut them to fit the handle. Some handles have cutouts that fit around natural knots in the branches. These have to be cut and shaped as I wrap and glue the handle around the stem. Some wands get a Preciosa or Swarovski crystal element. Fewer wands get two!
To add more bulk to the following step, some glue is layered to add higher relief. Then the glue, wood, and fabric is selectively coated and creatively painted with an air drying liquid polymer. Because it takes hours to dry and days to cure, only half of the wand can be painted at a time as designs often encompass not only both ends of the wand but a good portion of the length as well.
The final step is also a lot of fun, because a wand isn’t truly complete until it is recorded and catalogued. The stats card has to get filled out. Each wand is quality tested at this time. It is measured, waved about, and it’s tensile strength gauged. The wand also lends to what quality it is looking for in its spell caster. This final quality is listed on the bottom of the stats card as the “Trait”. In this way, Dubleve Wands truly do choose you.
The wands have changed over the years. They used to be much shorter, but longer wands proved more popular. In the beginning, only hardwood dowels were used. Now half of the wands are dowels and the other half are reclaimed wood. The charms back then could not be custom selected by the caster and were adhered directly to the wand handle. Wands were stained with wood stain or custom stain, different oils were tried, different varnishes. There were tassels. Dubleve Wands have been through a great many changes over the years and have now become many wielders’ preferred choice.
Thanks to all of the fans and happy wand owners who continue to recommend my wands. You make my heart sing.