After reading all of the Harry Potter books and watching all of the Harry Potter movies, my daughter was using anything she could find as a wand. I decided to step it up and make a DIY Harry Potter wand. What is a wand, after all? It’s a stick. That’s what Ollivander used, so that’s what I’d use. And while I was at it I went ahead and made a DIY Hermione Granger wand.
What you need:
- A stick
- Carving tool (I used a knife and a dremel tool)
- Hot Glue
- Paint
- Phoenix Feather
- Dragon Heartstring
- A few hours
Step 1: Find Sticks
Approximately 14-inch sticks was what I was looking for. I didn’t care about being true to the movie. I just wanted to get close. So these are my sticks. I was a little picky in choosing my sticks. I wanted a natural taper and I wanted the handle end to have an natural knob look.
Step 2: Whittle
It’s quite relaxing. I used photo reference to get the shape right. Harry’s wand has kind of a handle thing that I wanted to replicate in my version:
So I whittled them to a certain point to get the bark off and remove a lot of material, then I got out my Dremel and a sanding bit and tapered them down to look like this.
Step 3: Bake
You can skip this step, but I wanted to add it in. I put my sticks in the toaster oven for a little bit in order to dry them out as best I could. I’m not sure you have to, but I figured the dry wood would hold up better than green wood that is bendy. Carry on.
Step 4: Stylize
I used hot glue to build up certain areas and to add detail.
For example, Hermione’s wand has squiggly carvings all on it, almost like vines, but I wasn’t going to carve all that.
So I squiggled with hot glue (knew it would all be painted anyway).
Nice.
Step 5: Insert the cores
I used a Phoenix Feather for Harry’s wand and a Dragon Heartstring for Hermione’s wand. The hardest part of this step is not actually getting the cores, it’s inserting them. What you do is
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And that’s really all there is to it. I wish I had better photos of that step but it was hard to hold the camera and do the coring at the same time.
Step 6: Paint
I used a dark brown spray paint for the base coats.
Once the base coat was dry I used a metallic gold spray paint for the detailing.
I did NOT spray it right on.
I used a scrap sheet of plastic vapor barrier I had lying around (newspaper would work too) and sprayed a bunch of paint onto the surface, then I took my wands and carefully rolled them on it so the second color would only get applied to the raised detail.
And that was it. My daughter’s head almost exploded when she saw the awesomeness. I’m serious. She practically carries one of them around with her at all times.
Now I need to make about 4 more because when her friends come over to play there’s sometimes drama over who gets “real” wands and who uses chopped up dowels from the basement.
8 Comments
Sean
This wand diy idea is awesome in it’s simplicity…except the part where you inserted the cores…gonna have to YouTube that part, ha. Thanks for sharing.
Carmen
This is fantastic! My daughter has read the books and seen the movies and has been dying for a wand. Thanks so much!
Meghan Simmons
I am so obsessed with Harry Potter and I am dying to get Hermione’s wand But my mom won’t buy it for me now we have a project to do together which she has been dying to do thank you sooooooo much for sharing this
Meghan Simmons
Hermione is my role model and I finally can have her wand
Meghan Simmons
When you mentioned needing four more wands you can make Ron’s, Luna’s, Ginevra (Ginny)s and Snape’s or Neville s if you and your daughter don’t like Snape I know I don’t!!!!
pumpkin
this is the bomb y’all
Hits
The core part is fake
Kitten
r/whooooooooooosh