I'm going to a Harry Potter 7 midnight release party next Friday with a bunch of people, all of us in costume. I'm going as Luna, and decided to make my own wand rather than buying one of those really clunky plastic ones cause those big ones totally wouldn't fit behind my ear. When I told two of my dearest friends this, they instantly demanded their own wands. They are going as Cho and Tonks.
First; Heres Cho Chang's (AKA Angela) wand. 10 3/4 inches Mahogany with Silver accents Unicorn hair core.
Close up of the accents.
Second; Here's Luna Lovegood's (AKA Mine) wand. 11 1/2 inches Rosewood with gold accents Dragon heartstring core.
Close up
Tonk's (AKA Laura's) unfinished wand. Laura hasn't decided what she wants her wand to be yet but what is known is that its 13 5/8 inches long with a slightly bent tip (I imagined Tonks bending it during one of her klutzy moments) and lots of dents and entire chunk missing because shes an Auror and since there is a war going on her wand had probably been on the receiving end of a few dark curses.
All the wands are made with Sculpty III with coat hanger wrapped in tin foil armature. After curing them I dry brushed Cho's wand with dark brown acyclic paint and painted the accent pieces with silver. Luna's was brushed with a watered down cream coloured AP then some dark brown in the crevices. The accent pieces are painted with antique gold paint.
UPDATE: I finished Tonks (AKA's Laura's) Wand and I made Luna (AKA me) a new wand because the first one didn't quite feel right. So here they are
Tonks:
Full view
Detailing on the handle
Close up of the end. The painting really brought out all the missing chunks and scratchs. I was really quite proud of this wand.
Luna:
Full view
Close up detailing.
This one is a few shades darker than the original Luna wand and nearly half a cm narrowing at the handle which made sticking it behind my ear much more comfortable. I gave the other wand to a friend who came to the party but sadly couldn't stay long.
Here's an action shots.
Ok so thats some random little girl who wanted a photo with all of us, Me, Angela and Laura. Sadly I only got one picture of my on full costume with my wand since I was the one taking the pictures all night, and this isn't it. The one pic of me is really quite horrible so just pretend you can all see through little girls and you can see me wielding my wand. We got compliments on them all night. We actually had a student documentry team follow us around half the night after they saw our wands (and wigs) and asked about our costumes.
So anyway, Heres a mini tutorial for a dark coloured wand:
Materials:
-One brick of sculpty II in brown (or any PC brand. You'll need nearly a whole brick. More if your wand it going to be as big as Tonks'). I blended 3 parts chocolate to 1 part terracotta to get a slightly lighter shade of brown.
-Tin foil
-Acrylic paint. Dark brown, Black, Silver or Gold
-small soft paint brush
-paper towel
-something to mix paint in
-coat hanger or heavy gauge wire (optional)
-fine grit sand paper (optional. I didn't use it but if you want a really smooth wand, you'll want this)
1. Roll a 30 cm long piece of tin foil in to a tube. If using a piece of wire, wrap the foil around it.
2. Condition clay and set about 1/10th aside for detailing. Wrap the rest around the tin foil tube, making sure to taper the end.
3. Roll the remaing PC in to a long snake about 3mm thick. Wrap it around the top of the handle area in a random swirly pattern. I just made it up as I went along. Wrap a small piece around the bottom of the handle in a simple circle.
4. Smooth any creases, dents or finger prints. To make a well used looking wand, use your finger nails to add little dents and scratchs. Make them shallow. The paint will really make them show up after curing.
5. Bake at 250F for 25-30 minutes (longer and at a lower temp so its stronger).
6. After its completely cool, wet sand if you want (I was making wands that needed to look well used and slightly abused so I didn't. Also, I'm rather lazy)
7. Water down the dark brown paint and brush over the wand making sure to get in to all the nooks and crannies. wipe off with the paper towel before it dries. Repeat this step until the wand looks right. It took me 3-5 coats.
7. Water down the black paint and brush it in to the detailing and any scratches you want to stand out anymore. Wipe off excess.
8. Let the wand dry, then paint the detailing with the silver or gold paint.
9. When dry, wander around town randomly casting spells at people (Impedimenta is a good one. As is Stupefy).
