Harry Potter Wand

I have a confession to make... I didn't read Harry Potter when I was a kid (enter shocked faces)! I know, I know, how could I not have?! To be honest, I remember my parents buying the first book for me and coming home with it. I remember one of them saying "Here, everyone's talking about this, kids supposedly are obsessed with it". Well, maybe that comment was what threw me off because I, for as long as I can remember, hate doing what everyone else does. I do remember trying to read it, however, but never made it past the first chapter. So, once I became a librarian, I decided that this shame was unacceptable, I MUST read HP and ASAP! Well, I don't know what changed, but I read them all within a a couple of weeks and was in love with them. So yes, I am an HP fan, but it just took me 20 years!

With my job at the library I am constantly receiving strange and unusual things from customers and fellow staff members in the hopes that I will save the item from the dumpster. To be honest, I kind of love it! It's like... a "thing" now and I love the challenge. One of our patrons who I have grown to know quite well over the last couple of years, is a gentleman named Ralph. I first met him when he came into the library saying he worked at a warehouse that was closing and asked if we librarians would want anything for crafts or programs. Well on to his warehouse I went and ever since then he stops by and gives me more fun things to use, I love it. 

One item he gave me was 2 hugeeee boxes of long skinny green boxes. I had no idea what I'd use them for but as always I said, "Yep, I'll take 'em". So there I was staring at 200 of these narrow boxes and the only thing I could think of... wand box. These boxes were perfect, I mean perrrrrfect for a wand so that's what they became! Below are the steps I took to make a simple wand with easily found materials, hopefully you can find a similar box to use too or just make the wand itself!

SUPPLIES:

• 2 SHEETS OF COPY PAPER
• BEADS (LARGE BEED FOR END OF WAND)
• OLLIVANDER'S BOX LABELS
• WOOD OVAL PIECE
• INTERIOR LINING PIECES OF CHOICE (VELVET/MIRROR/PAPER)
• BOX TO KEEP THE WAND IN 
• SCISSORS
• HOT GLUE
• WAND PAINT
• METALLIC PAINT
• LIQUID GLUE

1. Layer 2 sheets of copy paper and begin rolling from one corner into a cone shape (it might take a few tries to get the right look/size). ​

2. When you get to the end, adhere the overlap with double sided tape or with hot glue, careful with your fingers! 

3. You can either trim the ends of your wand with scissors, or fold down the end into the bottom of the wand.  

4. This will leave a hole at the end, fill this in with crumpled up paper so the wand becomes sturdier, and fill the end with hot glue to secure.  

5. Paint your wand whatever color you would like. It may take a couple of coats to cover completely.   

6. I searched online for the Ollivanders store box labels and found some jpgs to copy. I printed them in a gold color (just because I liked it). Adhere your 3 box labels with a liquid glue. Use a light layer of glue and smooth out the labels so there are no air bubbles.

7. Use hot glue to create the character of your wand. While holding the wand, slowly rotate it as you create your lines and shapes with the glue and be careful with your fingers!

8. Place some of your beads into the hot glue for a “jeweled” effect. One at the end looks very authentic!

9. Paint over the hot glue with your base color and then again with the metallic paint.

10. If you have one, you can glue a wood piece onto the wand and paint it to match the rest of the wand. I just thought this added some more texture and depth and made the wand look more realistic.

11. Lastly, I wanted to make the box look more "legit". I found both velvet and adhesive mirror pieces to use. I measured and cut the pieces to fit the interior of each side and glued them in each spot. And ta-da! Just look at that beautiful wand! I think it'd be really cool to make a velvet pillow for the inside of the box for the wand to rest on as well!