Real Wood Wands

I made a wand that I'd seen here on instructables that involved rolling up paper, using hot glue, and painting, and I loved it. However I noticed that in the movies, they switched from sleek, manufactured looking wands to wands that look more natural. So one day I found a stick and started whittling. What I ended up with was the first of 5 wands that I would end up making. Here is mine, and the last two that I have. The other two already have owners.

Mine is what I believe to be willow (I found it under a willow tree), and the other two are part of the same branch from an apple tree. The small one is for my cousin's 3 year old niece, and the longer is for my cousin.

I cut the sticks to length, removed the bark from everywhere but the handle, dried the wood out for a few days, whittled them to a basic shape, then sanded the heck out of them. After that I applied 2 to 3 coats of shellac, and  voila! Wands!