As a concise introductory guide as well as something for the more curious ~ following is an abridged explanation detailing the start of my creation-process when making a wand. This post was made at the request of my contacts and I hope you find this data informative and useful. A fuller, more detailed description of the complete process is available on request and I welcome any questions, feedback, ideas or personal preferences that you may have. Please don't hesitate to contact me if you so wish : --
(1) ~ SELECTION ~
{ Wood Selection & Initial Shaping }
Virtually all wood used is storm-fall collected notably from sacred-sites within the U.K.
All wood collected is cured for a minimum of six months before any shaping is started.
I have created wands using alder, elm, oak, spruce, hawthorn, birch, willow, beech, eucaluptus, poplar and hazel - and I am open to any ideas or personal preferences with wood - please bear in mind that very soft or very flexible woods are not a practical choice for use in wands as they do not provide sufficient resilience or rigidity.
After selecting wood for a particular wand it is then checked for natural defects and scrutinized for the most suitable mating with a crystal.
Then a preliminary shape is roughly applied to the wood, whilst constantly referring to the crystal to be used. Often the image that is formed at this stage turns out to be the final product. Occassionally this image is re-designed during the creation process and the final product is rather removed from the initial image. If more than one wooden component is to be incorporated into a wand - at this point they are shaped together to give a basic wand form.
(2) ~ SHAPING ~
{ Intermediate Shaping /Sanding & Final Sanding }
Here I focus on the shape and the mating point for the crystal to be used. With most of my wands I retain some of the wood's natural bark covering - this really gives a wand some "natural appeal" and is also quite handy and hardwearing as a place to grip a wand. I sometimes moisten or lightly wax the wood at this stage to assist in smoothing or to make the wood's natural grain more apparent. I also at this point bond together the wooden components for a wand where two or three different kinds of wood are to be used and shape / sand them.
At this stage of the process I concentrate on arriving at the original wand design, or as close to it as is possible. After reaching a satisfactory conclusion with the smoothing process ( it can take several days depending on the type of wood being used ) a light coat of wax is applied and left overnight to help bring the grain further out of the wood. Here you can see this grain in the lower picture above, it is unique to each individual wand and add's greatly to the charm, originality and natural beauty of each item.
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