Completed Projects: 2 Wands

So last month, I finished two wands for my friends as belated Christmas gifts (I have a bad habit of putting things off). I don't know the wood of this one, but I decided to leave on the layers of bark for the handle because I liked the contrast that it had to the shaft of the wand. I didn't decorate it so as to make the wand look as natural and simple as possible. 

With this one (which is what I believe to be birch), I woodburned eyes over the knots because my friend loves to draw that style of eyes, so I decorated the wand with them to make her wand personal. The taper on the end is a bit thick in order to give it a stake look, like the kind that Odysseus used to blind Polyphemus. Because of this, she calls it a weapon; I don't have any problem with that as long as no one is blinded or killed. 

Completed Project: Thyrsus

 Back in Ancient Greece, when women celebrated the Festivals of Dionysus, they would hike up a mountain with a thyrsus, which is a staff covered with ivy and topped with a pine cone. At my university, we have a tradition where once a year, we hike up a mountain and perform skits in crazy costumes. However, none of carry a thyrsus...until now, that is. Quick fact: I'm a Classics major. After learning about Dionysus festivals, I wanted to make a thyrsus for the Classics Department for the mountain hike and Eta Sigma Phi initiations. 

The staff is a natural branch that I found in the woods, dried and de-bugged, then whittled of the top bark. To keep the natural look, I didn't saw down any stumps. After sanding and sealing, I circled the staff with plastic ivy bought at Michael's and adhered it to the staff with industrial glue. With same glue, I attached the pine come to the top.  Once the glue dried, the thyrsus was complete.

This is the height of the thyrsus. I stand at 5'8", so my guestimation is that it stands at around 7'0". I could be wrong, but the point is that it's really long. Needless to say, I tried to use it for its intended purposes, only to be thwarted on the day that the university was supposed to climb the mountain because it rained. But I used it for the backup plan (walk around campus) and went so far as to climb Senior Rock, shouting, "Ehoi Bacchoi (Huzzah Bacchae)!"

Trying to Fit Whittling into a Busy Schedule

After a summer of laziness and not whittling much, I'm now dealing with a semester of heavy homework and little to no time to whittle (the only time I get a full night's sleep is on the weekends). So  the specialty hall where I'm living is doing a fundraiser, I decide to cram in as much whittling as I can. I planned, despite my horrendous schedule, to carve four wands, two dice, three necklaces, and a rune set.

All that I completed was a necklace and a die. 

So I was far from my goal, but you know what? I made awesome things. I whittled, and that's good enough for me. Now let me show you these wonderful things:

This involved a wood tile, a necklace, and an earring hook. My first step was use my woodburning pen to etch out the tree design on the wooden tile, then so the second step of drilling a hole in the top where I could put the earring hook through. Between those steps, acrylic sealer was applied. After the earring hook was sent through the hole, I used pliers to bend the tip upward so that it formed a loop. The pliers were then used to separate the top circle so that I could put it on the necklace, completing the whole craft. It sold for $2 at the fundraiser. 

This die simply involved a wood block, a sanding pad, my woodburning pen, and the acrylic sealer. This is a very simple craft that a lot of beginning whittlers can do, especially when they need to whip up a quick one in time for a fundraiser. All that was needed was sanding down the edges and rounding them out to make it easy for the die to roll. Then, woodburn the dots on each face. When finished, apply sealer and you have a nice, simple, and fun craft. This sold for $1.

So despite my busy schedule, I managed to make two things and help out my hallway. And yesterday, I completed another die, which I gave to my mother, and am working on another necklace for my friend since today is her birthday. As for the things that were not completed, they're now on my ever-growing list of projects. I'm excited to do the rune set, but that will have to wait until a holiday break or be a slow process. 

More Finished Projects!!!

Even with exams and all that mess that comes with the end of a semester, I still managed to get some projects finished, which pleases me greatly.

Yes, I finished the sushi, and my friend LOVED them. She even squealed, which was very amusing. They're based on California rolls with Laura's flair with avocado, mushrooms, red peppers, crab meat, and cream cheese (all colored with acrylic paint).



And I also completed another wand. But alas, I forgot to take a picture of the final result, so all the only photo I do have is this one where I compared it to the first wand. Obviously, I like sticks of that length. <_< ? I made this wand for a professor who has left, and so this was my way of showing how much I appreciate her. The difference between this pic and the final result isn't much. It's pretty much the shape of Shoshana's wand (the one with the trees and leaves) without decorations and lighter. The reason I chose not to add decorations was because I liked the idea of letting her determine what she wants on it because it's her wand. With Shoshana, it was giving her a new perspective. With Charlotte (the professor), it's giving her another surface on which to expand her ideas. There's a long brown line down the side of the shaft which you can't see in the photo, but I chose not to cover that up because it also shows how she's scarred, but that doesn't take away from her overall beautiful person. Yes, I am Augustus Waters (from The Fault in Our Stars) in the fact that I see everything in metaphor.

This one was quite a thrill to do. So, Shoshana, the friend I made the first wand for, is a huge fan of Star Trek and collects earrings. What I have failed to notice, however, was the combination of these things. I fixed that. This is the first project that didn't involve a piece of wood that I found somewhere in the forest. Both pieces were bought at Michael's and only needed some sanding to smooth out the edges. After that, I traced out the emblems and used a woodburning pen to darken it. Then I used acrylic paint to color it, then finished it off with fixative. Shoshana loved them and I hope she will wear them the next time she dons her Uhura dress.


Now that summer has started, I'm hoping to get moving on more projects and completing those that I've been working on for a while. I'm still working on the thyrsus, as well as a cane for my friend, Naomi, and a wand from a stick that another friend found and thought I could do something with it--I don't know who it's for yet, but it will be amazing.

Getting Back in the Habit

So with the start of a new semester, things have been a little too busy for my whittling.

Am I okay with this? No.

Result? I've been starting on more than one project at a time, which is BAD! The more projects I start at once, the less that get completed. Right now, I'm balancing sushi, a thyrsus, two wands, and a cane. And I'm behind schedule from my list of projects...I knew that line-up was ambitious. But nevertheless, I just need to figure out what's more important right now to work on (thyrsus and wand #1). Sushi and wand #2 will have to wait until Spring Break since it requires paint and the wand is the one I left at home. Hopefully, between family stuff, friend stuff, personal stuff, and homework stuff, I can fit whittling stuff in there somewhere. Depending on what I get done over Break, I'll have to re-organize my project line-up and reassign deadlines. Hopefully, much will get done, but we'll have to see first.

Sappy Mistakes

Most of today was spent cleaning my room, which is mess of objects and wood shavings. I did, however, do some whittling by cutting down a limb to wand-size. The sickly-sweet fruity smell should have been my first clue that this might not have been a good limb to use. No, I had to get the wood all in my saw and cut two pieces of bark off before I realized that I was dealing with a soft wood filled with sap and getting it on my knife.

Great. <_<

After some scrubbing and giving up for now on trying to clean the saw, I threw the branch out. That was depressing because it looked perfect for a wand. Well, that was my firsthand experience with trying to work with soft woods. Never, ever again...

What Did I Bring Into My Room Now???

I did it again. I brought another fallen branch into my room with the idea that it would be perfect for any huge projects in the future (cane, perhaps?). However, this branch proved to be a lot more difficult than the last one, starting with the fact that it was bigger than the last branch, which took up almost the whole floor span.

There was first the manner of carrying it in. I tried the back entrance to my dorm, which leads to staircase going straight up to my room, but the branch was too long to fit into the hallway without setting off the alarm first, so then I had to carry the whole thing around the building and to the front where the main doors are open for five seconds whenever someone is getting in. Getting it in that way was only one of the two easy parts of having that thing.

Next came getting it up to the third floor by way of the center staircase. After attempting to do it alone and failing miserably, two people from the specialty hall passed by and offered to help. Thank the Universe. So we carried it up stairs, holding it as vertically as we could until we reached the third floor. Getting it into my hallway was the second easy part since that only required turning the thing around and having one of the people keep the door open.

I am still surprised that we somehow got the entire thing into my room. That required careful turning and much patience. Remember the first branch and its length. Yeah, this branch had to have one end propped against the fridge while the other end had to rest against the top bookshelf. It was that big.

Now came the hardest thing of all: sawing. I spent a very nice (oh, there's that sarcasm again!) time sawing it in two places to make it small enough to lean against my wall rather than lay across the floor. If I don't get muscles from three P.E. courses, I'll certainly get it from sawing.

Now the bug problem. I haven't found ants yet, but I've found two spiders and littler bugs that I can't identify. I'll take a hairdryer to it again and see what that does. Hopefully the heat will kill them.

You're a whittler when you bring huge branches into your room with your thought process being "I can use this for something!" and are willing to put up with the problems of insects for the love of your hobby. That's dedication right there. :D