Introduction: Make Your Own Fantastic Beast: Bowtruckle Edition

Have you ever been in a situation where you needed a quick pickpocket? Maybe you were handcuffed to an interrogation chair, or locked in a dungeon, or maybe you've found yourself a locked treasure chest. Well if you've been in any of these situations, or plan on being in one in the future, you have come to the right place. You need to get (or make) yourself a Bowtruckle. A Bowtruckle is a famous magical creature in the world of Harry Potter. They are guardians of trees, and are generally gentle creatures. They have long twig fingers or arms, used for digging out wood lice, but they are also perfect for another task: Picking Locks. Today, I am am going to show you how to make your very own little lock picker, but first you are going to have to gather the supplies.

Step 1: Gathering Supplies

For this project you are going to need the following items

  • A scissors
  • Strong but Flexible wire
  • Hot glue gun
  • Hot glue sticks
  • Fake flowers or leaves
  • green string
  • small brown beads (optional)

Step 2: Preparing the Skeleton

The first step in the process is building the foundation of the bowtruckle. This bowtruckle's skeleton consists of four different wires at varying lengths. You can easily cut the wire with a scissors or a wire cutter. The different lengths of wire are:

  • 1 roughly 10 inch long wire (which will be the bowtruckle's body)
  • 2 roughly 3.5 inch long wires (which will be used as the bowtruckle's arms)
  • 1 roughly 4 inch wire (which will be the bowtruckle's third leg)

Step 3: Assembling the Skeleton Part 1

Take the body wire and bend it in half. Hold the top of the wire at the bend and start twisting. Twist the wire until it is about .5 inch to an inch down. Congratulations, you just made the head and neck!

Step 4: Assembling the Skeleton Part 2

Next take the two arm wires and twist them into an X. Take the hot glue gun and the body wire and place a dot a glue at the between the twist. Then place the arms between the body wires on the dot of glue. After secured, twist the body wires around the arms for another inch.

Step 5: Assembling the Skeleton Part 3

Now we're ready to add the third leg. Take the single leg wire and start twisting around the abdomen of the body. Twist until it is at the start of the other two legs. You can also use hot glue here if the leg is not fully secure. After the leg is placed, stretch out all the legs to measure. If they are uneven, take the scissors and trim them down to be all the same length.

Step 6: Complete Skeleton!

You've just completed your Bowtruckle's skeleton!!! You can bend the legs and see it stand on its own at this stage.

Step 7: Hair Installment

It's hot glue time again! Take the the hot glue gun and place a dot of glue on top of the Bowtruckle's head. Then take your fake flower or leaves and place them on the hot glue. (It doesn't have to look pretty where the leaves meet the body, it will eventually be covered up by skin)

Step 8: Applying the Skin Part 1

Next step is to add the skin over the skeleton. First you'll want to place a a dot of hot glue on the base of the fake leaves. Then apply the green string to the glue and start wrapping. Try and wrap around the leaves and wires thoroughly so nothing shows through.

Step 9: Applying the Skin Part 2

When you get to the arms, wrapping the string may become tricky. Try wrapping around the arms in an X pattern until your bowtruckle has a thicker chest. Then start wrapping up one of the arms (one of the top ones preferably) until you get to the end. Once, you are at the end of the arm place a dot of hot glue on the wire and wrap the string around. Start wrapping back down the arm and repeat these steps with the three other arms and legs.

Step 10: Almost Done!

After you've wrapped the rest of your bowtruckle with string, it should start to look like a little fantastic beast!

Step 11: Implanting Eyes

The next step (which is optional) is to add your bowtruckle's little brown eyes so they can see. For this, take the hot glue gun and place a small dash of glue where you want your bowtruckle's face to be. Then take two small brown beads and place them on the glue, and just like that your bowtruckle can see! (You can also just draw on your bowtruckles face with a sharpie or any other black or brown marker)

Step 12: Congratulations! You've Made a Bowtruckle!

Finally, you have completed your very own bowtruckle. Have fun picking locks, and hanging your new friend from various places! And feel free to make as many bowtruckles in as many shapes and sizes as you like, they do like company!