Wandmaking 
By Joanne Dunster
Introduction
Most Pagans already have a pretty good idea of what a wand is supposed to be and what to use them for. This workshop aims to look at wands a little closer and show you how to actually make one. A wand made by your own hands either for your self or another is a beautiful thing and does not require much in the way of physical skills or tools. All it takes is some time, attention to detail and patience to make a beautiful and energy filled wand.
As part of this workshop, participants will experience a guided meditation to discover their wand and will choose a piece of wood to work with. Participants will be shown how to strip, sand and finish a basic wand and will be given lot of ideas for further development of their wand. 
Discuss: What Makes a Stick a Wand?
Pass around some pictures of wands and discuss what participants like or dislike about them. Ask what it is that makes them more than just ‘a pretty stick’. Talk about how they use, or would like to use, a wand in their practice.
How Do You Start?
Not everyone thinks of making their own wand or does not want to. Thankfully there are a number of good wand makers to be found online and in the local Pagan community. Some purchase their wands or commission them to be custom made. However making your own is generally considered a better option because the maker has a chance to imbue the wand with their own energies in the making. Sometimes the wand literally finds the maker. A chance finding of the ‘right’ piece of wood is a common way people get started making their wand. Inspiration from a vision or meditation can also be the catalyst. Often the making of a wand is not so much a design and manufacture process but one of deeply personal discovery.
Designing Your Wand
You may want to do some research before you make your wand to discover and understand some of the different traditions and energies you may wish to tap into. Pieces of wand lore can be picked up via general study into mythology and folk tales. You can create your design through intuition or attempt to have it revealed to you via meditation and communion with your chosen gods. You may generate your own understanding from attempting to make a few wands and observing the results.
A topic you may want to research to help with the design of your wand could be, the Ogham as it is essentially a full symbolic and magical system that encompasses the unique magical properties and symbolism of certain trees and by extension their woods. It is limited to mainly European trees but there have been some attempts to apply the system to Australian Natives.
It is also worth while to study not just the magical aspect of certain trees and woods but the growing environment and habit of different trees. How a plant grows and what sort of environment it thrives in will give you a good understanding of it’s energies. For example weeping willow grows along the banks of rivers and has a beautiful silky pale wood. It’s energies are generally serene and fluid in sympathy with it’s form and habit.
Your research should not stop at discovering the energies of your materials but should also extend to the physical working of wood and other arts and craft techniques. This will expand your design options and give you the skills to do something special with your wand. If you are really keen you can join a wood working or wood turning enthusiasts club and get some practice in on some other projects.
If joining a club is not your thing there are many books on the subject of wood working that will give you lots of useful information. Here-today-gone-tomorrow bargain bookshops are good places to look if you are looking for information on some of the more obscure arts and crafts as often these type of shops stock remainder books that didn’t sell in other stores because of their obscurity. I have managed to pick up some great books on bone carving, wood turning and metal work relatively cheaply at some of these stores.
Spiritual Design
You have decided what wood you are going to use, the techniques you will need and the energies you want. You know that by making it your self you are able to invest it with your own personal energies, but how are you going to do this? It is true that just the contact of your hands and mind will transfer energy to some extent but there are other things you may wish to do to enhance this.
You may want to do all of the work on the wand, during it’s creation, within a circle, although you must be prepared to be there a while as it can take some time. You might want to chant something appropriate over the wand as you make it. Also consider making your wand on a certain day or time that astrologically meshes with your purpose.
All of these techniques can also be used to give your wand a particular function as well. For example you might start making a wand for working with the moon Goddess on a Monday, during a full moon, within a magic circle, whilst chanting a hymn to the Goddess.
Of course you can also make your wand at your convenience and then carefully cleanse and consecrate it to it’s purpose afterwards.
Discuss: More ideas on how to incorporate your spirituality into the making of your wand?
Make Your Plan
Once you have a good idea of what you want your wand to be and how you will make it is a good idea to write down your ideas so that you have something to refer to during the making process. Draw a diagram of what you want the finished wand to look like and use this drawing as your reference. Making a plan like this will keep you focused and help you pick up on any potential problems.
Activity: Guided visualisation
Take a moment to make yourself comfortable. Let yourself relax. Slow your breathing and close your eyes. Concentrate on your breathing. Slowly breathe in and hold 2,3,4 out 2,3,4, hold 2,3,4. Repeat this breathing pattern until you feel relaxed. 
All is dark around you and you feel you are floating. The darkness stretches out around you and all is peaceful.
Feel yourself gently start to descend. Floating weightlessly down through space until your feet touch softly down upon grass. Open your inner eyes.
You are standing in a clearing surrounded by trees. In the centre of the clearing is an altar with a flame burning brightly upon it.
As you look around you notice no two trees are the same. Each one is a different species. You see the graceful birch casting dappled shadow and a huge spreading oak. A beautifully glossy holly and a single faery hawthorn. 
You walk around the clearing and as you do you note the many other trees that are growing here, each one unique and beautiful. Reach out your hand as you pass and touch the bark of the tress, greet them as you would a friend and move on. Remember the trees that you see in your grove.
When you make your way back to the place where you entered, turn and move towards the centre of the clearing to the altar. Sitting upon the altar is a wand. Pick it up and hold it in your hand. Feel it’s surface. Is it rough or smooth? How long is it? Is the wood light or dark? Can you see any decoration or is it simple and elegant. Can you sense what species of tree the wood came from? Feel the wand’s energies and know this is your wand, gifted to you by the trees and the Gods. It exists here in the Otherworld and may be brought to life in the mundane.
Hold your wand firmly in your hand, stand strong and point it before and above you. Feel the energy of the earth beneath you travel up through your feet, through your legs, up past your navel, past your chest, filling you completely. The energy flows down your arms through your hands and erupts perfectly focused out through the tip of your wand.
With this energy draw in the air before you a star of flaming green from top to bottom-left, up to the right, across to the left, down to the bottom-right and up again to the top. This is an Earth invoking pentagram. It flames brightly green in the air before you. A symbol of growth and manifestation.
You have made your mark on the Otherworld. The wand you were gifted here has the power to manifest in the mundane.
Replace your wand upon the altar and cast your eyes once more around the clearing. See each tree in all of it’s splendour. 
You find you are holding in your hand a gift. Something of yourself to give in thanks to the trees. Place your gift on the grass before the altar and see it sink into the earth. A cool breeze sweeps through the clearing and makes the leaves on the trees shake gently with a rustling sound. Your gift has been accepted and the trees are happy.
Sit down upon the grass and look up at the pentagram you wrought. Close your inner eyes. Let the clearing around you fade slowly away to black. Breath deeply and feel the grass beneath you change to the floor you are seated on. Become aware of the noises around you, the sound of my voice. Let yourself return to the here and now. When you are ready, open your eyes.
Activity: Write or draw wands. 
Each participant is given some pencils and paper and is asked to quickly jot down either a description or drawing of their wand. It does not need to be a masterpiece, just enough to help remember the details.
Discuss: Meditation results
Activity: Select wood
A selection of wood is brought out and each person selects a piece. Ask them to hold the wood and feel it’s energies before deciding on which piece to take. They are looking for one that matches the feeling of the wand in their meditation. If such a piece is not there they may take any piece that takes their fancy as a practice piece. Perhaps they will create a wand that is meant for someone else. There is great joy to be had in passing a wand you have made to the right person.
Discuss: Plans for individuals wands. 
Go around the circle again and consult with participants to help them form a plan of how they are going to go about creating their wands.
Gathering and Preparing the Wood
The most important material in the wand is obviously the wood you make it from, so taking care in the way that you source and collect it is a must. There are conflicting opinions as to whether dead-fall is better than green cut wood. 
Dead-fall is wood that has naturally fallen from the tree. Dead-fall may have been upon the ground for some time and begun to break down. This wood often has alot of character and is already seasoned. Importantly dead-fall wood does not damage the tree to collect it. Also because the wood is already dry you know that it is unlikely to warp and change shape. 
However, some wand lore states that the wood a wand is made from should never have touched the ground and must be cut green as this keeps it pure to its purpose. Green cut wood is also much easier to debark but you will need to season it and it may change shape, warp or split during drying, especially if you have debarked it whilst green. Whichever way you decide to collect your wood, whether you cut or not, be sure of your reasons.
Cutting a small piece of wood from a large healthy tree will do it relatively little damage. Take a length longer than the finished size of your wand (to allow for shaping) but do not take more pieces than you need and never cut from an unhealthy tree or one that is too small to support the loss easily. Most ornamental and fruiting trees actually benefit from pruning so you may want to wait until a tree needs pruning to take your wood. It is usually the long gangly straight bits that get pruned so this is an excellent source for wood.
You can also use saplings that have ‘not made it’. These can be turned into stunning wands that incorporate the root structure at one end. Although you probably would not want to kill a sapling to do this.
When you collect your wood you may wish to ask permission for the wood and leave an offering of thanks if it is granted. To do this you can touch the tree and ask silently, then remain open to an answer either from a feeling or some other physical sign. Or you may want to meditate under the tree and attempt to contact its spirit or deva.
An offering of thanks should be meaningful to you and to the tree, after all you are not only thanking the tree but attempting to help the tree recover from it’s loss and showing it respect. Offerings may be things like, some of your own personal energy, a bit of fertiliser or water, an item of value or something organic like compost. I have even used a few strands of my own hair as it is organic and is symbolic of connection and trust.
You do not have to ask permission or make an offering, you can just take the wood with an attitude of reverence and offer your thanks. It is up to you to decide how formal you wish to be.
To season green wood place it in a protected location with an even temperature. Large changes in temperature may make the wood warp or split. Leave wood to dry for several weeks and check it regularly. It may take longer in the winter. You can tell it is dry by how much flexibility it retains (i.e. not much) and by the ‘green’ smell that fades.
Don’t cut your wand to length before it is dry as if it does bend whilst drying you may need to cut your wand from a different section of the wood.
Source Other Materials
If your wand design incorporates decorations like crystals, leather or other items, source them before you get too far down the track with your wand, but buy them a little later as you may need to get a certain size or colour and you might not discover what that is until the wand is shaped or the wood colour is revealed.
Crystals can be a wonderful addition to a wand but more often than not they are used rather haphazardly, are inexpertly joined (with nasty glues) and make a wand look (and feel) rather tacky. If you are going to use a crystal, consider it carefully and choose a piece with the same individual care that you chose the wood. 
Crystals can be most effectively sourced via wholesalers as they are often, cheaper, have better quality stones and a much bigger range to choose from. Take your wood along with you and find a stone that has a complimentary energy to the wood and will actually fit on the end or wherever you will mount it.
Leather can be sourced from most large craft shops (Spotlight is pretty reliable) or if you are lucky you may be able to find a specialist leather working store in your area which will give a better choice.
Tools can be found at most hardware stores. If you can afford it, buy nice quality tools and sandpapers. It makes things so much easier. 
Decorative wires (brass, copper, silver, gold etc.) can be found at good art supply and beading shops. Most hardware stores will only stock galvanised wire which looks nasty and leaves residue on your hands.
Brass knobs and finials (decorative end pieces for clocks, curtain rods and furniture) can be found at hardware stores, but specialist fittings shops, wood working and antiques stores will offer you a more interesting array of choices.
Activity: Hand out tools. 
Bring out the tools. Get everyone to select a knife.
Basic Safety
When using any sharp tools there are a few points to be aware of. Always cut away from yourself if you can help it. Also make sure that the knife you are using is sharp, this may seem odd but you will be able to use less pressure with a sharp knife and are less likely to slip and cut yourself. If you do cut yourself a sharp blade will usually do less damage and make for a cleaner wound. Keeping your knife sharp also makes it much easier to work with your wood and gives a better end result.
Some woods are toxic when breathed as dust (like ebony and other hardwoods) or have poisonous sap (like Oleander). Make sure you know what wood you are working with and take the proper precautions.
Making your Wand
Step 1 Strip the Bark
If your piece of wood has bark that you would like to remove to reveal the grain underneath there are several tips for doing this effectively.
Have a look at your piece and if the bark is quite flaky or loose it may be better to pick or peel it away rather than use a knife to cut it off. Sometimes you can get too enthusiastic removing the bark and end up drastically reshaping the wood in the process. Seeing as the wood was probably partially chosen for its shape it would make sense to use techniques that preserve it’s unique form. If the bark is quite fibrous or has a fibrous under bark (like apple) try using your knife on an near 90 degree angle to scrape the bark away.
Step 2 Shaping
Use a knife and a file to create a tip, smooth out knots or taper your wand. If you are going to buy a file make sure it is not too rough as it may take off more wood than you intend. Look out for hobby files as well, these are great for fine detail. 
Fix your wood in a vice if you have one or hold it steady and use firm, even pressure, on your file strokes.
Step 3 Carve (optional)
Carving can be very difficult to make look nice so make sure you get in a lot of practice before you attempt to do anything too complex. A simple and effective carving technique is to carve the entire length of the wood with a spiral to make it look like the traditional image of a unicorn horn. This looks stunning when done with Willow wood. 
1. 	Shape your wood with a file into a straight tapering point
2. 	Draw a line spiralling around the wood with pencil. Make sure it is clear and even.
3. 	Score along the line with a sharp knife down about 1 - 2mm. You can come around again on a second pass and repeat step 3 and 4 if you want the effect deeper.
4. 	Hold the point of the wand away from you and place your knife a few millimetres back from the score line. Cut a sloping section away from yourself, towards the score line. This will remove a small scollop of wood neatly from the wand. Continue to do this all along the score line.
5. 	Repeat the score and cut method until you have the depth you require.
6. 	The carving will appear rather square and uneven but you can round out the wood with a file.
7. 	Sand with folded pieces of sandpaper to reach all the crevices.
Examples of wands carved with this technique are available on the Applegrove web site here: http://www.applegroveonline.com/wands/
Step 3 Cut to length
It is a good idea to cut your wand to length after you have started work on it as it gives you a chance to cut away any mistakes you may have made or to incorporate sections of the wood into its length that look quite nice now that the grain has been revealed.
The traditional length for a wand is from the users fingertips to elbow (usually about 40 - 45 cm) but you can make it any length you want. 
Use a small toothed saw or a hacksaw as these will have less chance of splitting the wood when you reach the end of the cut. Cut slowly and evenly and support the wood when you get near the end of the cut as it may split if it is allowed to just fall. Sand the ends and shape the point if you need to.
Step 4 Sand the wood
Sanding can be quite time consuming and trance inducing. Sit somewhere nice and take your time. You will get the best results if you sand using several grades of garnet paper (garnet paper is the red kind) starting with around 80 - 100 grit and moving through several grades hunting out imperfections as you go.
Step 5 Oiling
Once you get to the final fine sanding, use wet and dry sandpaper (black sandpaper) with a wood oil on it. When you rub this in it will produce a silky finish to the wood and help preserve it. 
You can use shop bought tung or teak oil, or blend an oil yourself. 
To make an effective wand oil blend the following:
2 Tablespoons of Almond oil
2 Teaspoons of Wheatgerm oil
5-10 drops of Sandalwood essential oil
The oil should be a golden colour. Once rubbed in it will bring out honey tones and protect the wood.
Step 6 Polish
To finish your wood you can apply a bees wax polish. This will give your wood a lovely natural sheen and help protect it (it smells fab too). You can use a store bought bees wax based furniture polish or make your own with the oil recipe above mixed with some melted bees wax to create a cream. You can obtain the bees wax and the oils from most good health food stores.
1. 	Melt a small amount of bees wax (roughly 2-3 tablespoons). Bees wax has a much lower melting temperature than candle wax so melt it over a low heat or use a double boiler. Don’t use candle or paraffin wax for this recipe as it is too hard once cooled and won’t become creamy.
2. 	Let the wax cool slightly so the essential oil in the mix does not burn off.
3. 	Slowly add the oil mixture and stir into to the liquid wax. This does not need to be exact. What you want is a hard cream consistency when it is cooled. You can re-melt gently and add more wax or oil later if you need to.
4. 	Pour into a sealable jar and let cool.
Rub this polish into the wood with a cloth and buff off. Keep the polish and use it to re-polish the wood every now and then. 
Step 6 Decorate (optional)
You may wish to decorate your wand with a simple leather binding around the hand grip or something more elaborate, or perhaps nothing at all. 
When binding leather make sure the leather is damp, not wet, as this will ensure it does not stretch too much and that it will dry tightly around the wood. 
You can also use metal wire (silver, gold, brass) as a wrap for the handle. Just drill or use a needle to make a tiny hole near the start of the wrap insert and glue about 5mm of wire into the hole and use that as an anchor to wrap the length of the handle. Then make another small hole at the end and secure in the same way as the beginning. 
If you are going to attach a crystal to the end be very careful about how you do it. Some crystals, like flourite are soft enough to hand drill a small hole into and use a metal pin to secure it with glue into the end of a wand. For most stones you will need to use a strong glue like Araldite and a binding around the base of the stone and the end of the wood to secure it and to hide the join. 
You can also use a silver ring glued to the end of the wand as a decoration or join cover. Silver rings are easy to get hold of in a range of designs and are reasonably inexpensive. This does not mean that you cannot use gold or copper or any other metal. Just make sure the pattern is continuous and that it fits snugly on the end of the wand. 
You can also use decorative brass knobs or finials on the end of your wand. These are usually easy to fit as they will normally come with a screw fixing. Just drill a nice straight pilot hole into the end of your wand and screw it in. You can also insert a piece of hair or nail clipping down the hole to add a touch of personal energy and connection.
If you wish to burn or engrave symbols onto the surface of your wand this can be done with a soldering iron or engraving tool but is extremely difficult to do neatly and almost impossible to remove if you do stuff up. Practice lots on similar wood before you attempt this.
You can experiment applying your decorations with natural rice flour based glues but they are generally not strong enough to hold anything heavy and are brittle. There is not really much in the way of effective techniques for neatly securing crystals without the use of some form of chemical glue, so if you do not like the idea of glue on your wand you may need to rethink how you wish to decorate it. 
Discuss: Other ideas for decoration?
Step 7 Cleanse and Consecrate
Most Pagan paths have a system or ritual for the cleansing and consecration of ritual tools. Your wand will have lots of your own energy when you have finished making it. During the cleansing part of your ritual concentrate on not wiping the item clean of all energy but just removing unhelpful energies and leaving the pleasant residue of all your hard work. If the wand is to be a gift for another you may wish to cleanse it thoroughly, removing all the ‘working’ energies and leave it unconsecrated for the new owner to put their stamp upon it.
When you dedicate your wand during the consecration your wand becomes a complete entity and ready for you to wield. 
Discuss: Cleansing and consecration methods from participants different traditions.
Discuss: Questions and answers
Follow Up
It is expected that participants in this workshop will not complete their wands in the time allotted to the workshop. Participants are encouraged to continue to ask questions and receive advice during the course of the conference. The craft room will be kept open for its continued use and participants can take home any sandpaper or oil and polish that they need if they wish.