HandmadeWandsTSRider

The original idea for the wands I make came from, well, my husband. I was looking for a wand for a costume idea I had, but couldn't find one anywhere that I liked.

I wanted something along the lines of Cherlindrea's wand from the classic Fantasy movie "Willow." This was during the Harry Potter craze, so most of what I was finding were Harry Potter remakes, and then a few that were either dowels turned on a lathe, or cast pewter. All of which there were hundreds of out there, and I wanted something a little more unique.

Enter my husband, who had just been outside mowing the front lawn. Now, a little backstory, we have two very large, and very old pecan trees in our front yard. I think one is about 75, and the other almost, if not over, 100 years old. And pecan trees are notorious for dropping two things. First, obviously, is pecans, but they're also known for dropping branches and sticks all the time. So in walks my husband complaining of the sticks hitting him in the legs when he goes to mow. (His way of asking me to pick up the yard.) I say that I'll pick up the sticks, but if I do, I'm going to make something out of them, not just throw them out. He shrugs, and I go out and pick up the last half of the yard that he hasn't finished mowing.

I take one of those sticks, and using some beads, charms, and scrap leather left over from another project I make my wand. I take it to DragonCon in Atlanta, GA that year, wear the costume, and everyone is asking me "Where did you get that wand?"

When I told people I made it, I got asked if I could make more. The answer to that was, "Well of course I can. I have two giant pecan trees." Thus, I started making the wands, and then I started making the accessories for them. I switched from beads to tumbled gemstones because I didn't have to dig the inlays deep enough to hide the hole in the beads. I also switched to using larger "pendant" sized stones on the bangles of the wands because it gave me a use for the stones that were too large to be inlaid.