Make Your Own Magic Wand

Here's a simple one! A great project for kids to take part in. Awesome as presents or for those of us nerds out there who just want to have their own magic wand (raises hand)

The only things you need are:
-A dowel rod
-Hot Glue
-Paint
Optional:
-Beads
- some sort of gem

I'll cover the optional parts as we go. First things first you should cut the dowel rod to a length that you want. I made mine fairly long though I forget what the actual measurement was. I used a chop saw, but you can easily use a hand saw, a sharp box cutter would work, or you could just break it and it wouldn't be the end of the world.

Once you've done this, I took a box cutter and shaved the end down a bit so it came a little closer to a point. (there is a lot of this that could be subjective and change depending on what look you want in the end)

After that I took my Gem and glued it onto the flat end with a dab of hot glue. This gem can be just about anything, or you could forgo it but it makes a nice end and base for the "handle" portion of the wand. I used a couple of large beads, you could also go with those shiny stones, a chunk of turquoise, anything that's sort of flat and has a pattern you like. (Don't mind my magazines and mess)

From there just start laying on hot glue. Be careful as you do this, not to burn yourself and to not put on way too much and heat up the other layers. I made 3 at once so I tried various methods. On my first want I made it more organic and twisted hot glue vines up the want. As the glue cools and starts to solidify you have a period of time where its still warm that you can roll it in your hands and form it to some extent. I found that globbing a lot on and hanging it from the tip while rolling made a nice layered look. This is also where you can add small beads into the mix to give it different textures or patterns.

The MAJOR goal here is to make something to hold on to, and make sure the glue goes over the top of the bead on the end. If you don't enclose it there;s a chance it could pop off in the future. Be sure not to cover the whole thing or you won't see it, but think of the glue as a claw holding onto it, wrapping around the outside edges.

And that's pretty much it! let everything dry and then paint it however you'd like. I made a cream colored wand. a dark black brown and then I painted green leaves on my organic wand. Paint them up however you'd like!