dremels, paint and new wands

So I like making harry potter wands. This chrsitmas just passed my university friends and I had a Hogwarts themed christmas party so I went a little mad and made about 7 wands for everyone.

My wands are usually very simple. Willow grows in our garden like crazy so I'm never short of easily carved lengths of wood to play with.

I of course had made myself a wand to go with my Hogwarts robes, this one was hazel and although simple I liked it. Except that 5 minutes before I went in to watch the final Harry Potter film this happened:

I was kind of upset by this but then I thought it was the perfect chance for me to make a new fancy one for myself.

This is the first time I've properly tried to use a dremel for an actually project. The others ties i was just trying to figure out which attachment did what.
I started by sawing a new piece of willow and stripping it of the bark. I picked a slightly thicker piece that usual because I new I'd be carving into it quite deeply.

I drew a simple design in pencil and used a stanley knife to carve out a basic cut line for the design.

I then started using the dremel to sand away from the outline to create a smooth design. unfortunately near the end when I wasn't paying attention the sanding attachment came loose and spun off, hit the wall and broke. thankfully it didn't hit me or any of the cats and i was almost finished the sanding anyway :)

I then used sand paper to finish off and smooth the rest of the wood. I then highlighted the design in gold metallic paint.

I decided to stain the wood with brown watercolour paint and redid some of the gold, where my hands had slipped :)

 

I had planned on varnishing once the paint had dried but decided against it. i might come back and do it but for now I'm happy with the slight rustic look. Also it turns out that the design I chose was exactly simple for my first dremel project but at least i'll be more confident next time. And now the finished product, I used black leather thonging to wrap around the handle. Next time I think I'll sand and shape the handle before doing the rest of the wand as it would be easier :)

Although the most fun part of this project was chasing my cat through the house after he had stepped in a glob of gold paint. I managed to catch him and wash it off before too much damage was done, he wasn't happy lol :)

Pottermore survey

stole this survey from Kristina Horner's blog

1. What's your Pottermore username? CatStone95
2. What House do you think it sounds like? I want to say Gryffindor, but that's kind of obvious. I'm not really sure what house it sounds like. Cats are kind of stubborn but lovable so maybe gryffindor after all :)
3. What House do you want to be in?Ideally Gryffindor, since that's the house I have identified with for the longest. But having read variuos psychoanalytical readings of the house like this one I would say I could kind of fit into hufflepuff or ravenclaw aswell.
4. Does your username relate to you at all?absolutely! my cats are a huge part of my life. Not quite sure about the stone part but hey I like the beach, I even kept a few cool stones from the beach near my university as mementos. So that part is cool with me :D
5. What kind of wand would you wish to get? I always though willow or hazel, with unicorn hair or dragon heartstring. But I'm really not bothered :D
6. Are you pure, half-blooded or Muggle born? You know, I never actually thought about that. I guess muggle-born
7. Which day did you get into Pottermore? Day 2. I managed to get the clue on day one but too late! :(
8. What shape is your Patronus? quite probably a big cat. all cats are gorgeous.
9. What does your boggart look like? I'm not really frightened of anything but i hate clowns so that would probably appear :s
10. Would you rather be an Animagus or a Matamorphmagus? Tricky I love being able to dye my hair but it completely messes up the quality so I would love to do that at will, but being an animal would be awesome too. yay for not making decisions!
11. If you were an Animagus, what animal would you be? I would be a cat for sure.