Welcome, all Potterheads!

Today, I will teach you to make a very unique Harry Potter style wand. Why is my wand unique? Because you have the ability to choose your own style of wood, which therefore determines your personality, and could even determine what House you're in!

Wands at the ready....Lumos....here we go!

*I entered this in the Wizardry Instructables contest, so all likes, comments, and favoriting would be much appreciated*

Step 1: Supplies

You'll need the following supplies:

1. A branch from a live tree

2. A pocketknife (for cutting) and a small knife (for the designs).

3. Varnish

4. A washcloth

5. Your imaginations

Step 2: Your Perfect Tree and Wand

First, you need to pick out your perfect tree. One in your backyard would do (don't trespass, though!).

For my wands, I used a maple and an oak tree. Use a sharp knife (like the Bear Grylls pocketknife) to cut the tree.

A way of wand carving which I prefer would be to cut a small branch off a live tree (however many inches you want...don't worry...if you cut at an angle, the branch will grow back) and then sand it down with sandpaper. Wet, new wood like that is much easier to carve (in my opinion).

Step 3: Sanding and Finishing Your Wand

So, after you have picked your wand tree and carved your wand, you need to take your pocketknife and slowly peel the outer bark off the wand. Do this carefully so you don't make any divots in the wand.

After the peeling, take some sandpaper and sand your wand until it is smooth. This could take some time. If it isn't completely smooth, the varnish won't stick to it.

When finished sanding, you can now carve designs or handles on your wand. ALWAYS cut your wand from the tree a little thicker than you want it to be when finished. See my above picture. The handle is thicker than the top part of the wand itself.

Step 4: Varnishing the Wand

You can easily find a can of varnish from your local hardware store.

When applying the varnish, use a washcloth and gently rub the wand with it. You will have to do this a couple times depending on the shade you want your wand to be. See my above pictures for light and dark examples.

Between each coat of varnish, you need to let the wand dry about 20-30 minutes.

Step 5: Finished Wand

Now that your wand is finished, have fun picking out cool names for it and deciding on the character traits of your wand. Style it with different varnish colors and designs.

On Pottermore.com there is a chart for character traits of wands. That was helpful when making mine.

Feel free to look up design inspiration online.

Thanks for looking, and please leave a comment if you need help or if you like my VERY FIRST Instructable! :-)