[mantra-multi][mantra-column width=”1/2″]
So I decided that my girls were old enough to watch the first Harry Potter film with me. All in all, they did really well, only a few screams and tears…yeah I know, bad father. But, it has piqued a new interest in them, magic!
The next day, the girls ransacked their dress-up boxes for Halloween costumes from last year, they wanted to be schoolgirl witches of course. They had the pointy hats and capes, but to be real students at Hogwarts they needed some wands – here enters the Woodfather’s lathe!
While some nice dark exotic wood would have been more authentic, good old pine was all that I had. I cut a couple of pieces roughly 300mm long, with a width of around 30×30. I don’t have a chuck or jaws for my lathe yet so I am a bit limited in what I can turn. Fortunately, a magic wand is fine to turn between centre points.
They are quite easy to make, I just quickly marked the size of the handle (child size of course) and the size of the shaft, and got to work. As there is no hard and fast design for a wand, you’re free to do whatever you think looks good. I played around and made a couple of different wands for the two of them, but really I was just practising making beads and curves on the lathe.
I don’t make them too long because, well, it is essentially a stick. And you just don’t want to give kids a long, pointy stick…it’s not smart. I keep the tips pretty thick as well, no sharp points.
The girls couldn’t wait to play with these the first time so there was no time for any paint or even lacquer, I just sanded them smooth and handed them over. The girls love these ‘finished’ ones too; I just wish that I could stop them turning me into a frog…
[/mantra-column] [mantra-column width=”1/2″]
[/mantra-column] [/mantra-multi]