Wand... how interesting...

[mijan]

Wood type: hawthorn Length: 13 inches Core: Phoenix Feather get your own wand!

How interesting... and part of me has always wanted a hawthorn wand... since long before the 7th Potter book was a twinkle in Scholastic's and Bloomsbury's eyes. Unfortunately, hawthorn is actually quite difficult to find where I lived. It EXISTS, but it's not easy to locate, and the bushes are often small and scraggley and not suitable for carving. I'm sure I'll find some eventually.

Other woods I like for use as wands, in no particular order:
Beech, yellow birch, cherry, holly, and oak.

Oh, and in that test, I found myself irritated that they only listed "normal" Judeo-Christian and American-secular holidays. Uh... hello... I celebrate the Solstices and Equinoxes. My favourite holidays are Yule, Beltane, and Samhain... and not for the reasons they'd expect. So, I picked Thanksgiving, because my guess is they're thinking that it means we care about family and celebrating togetherness... but it's STILL not right. *growls* Narrow-minded...

Comments

[worri.livejournal.com]

>:\

It says I should have a Maple wand. MAPLE!? HA!

*huggles my oak wand*

Have I told you I love this, by the way? Only about 3 times now that I recall... not enough.

[mijan.livejournal.com]

LOL... it's a very unique wand, and it suits you completely. I am happy that you're happy. :)

And remember, there's more to the "character" of a wand than just the type of wood and the core. So, two wands made of oak, same length, might not both be suited to you. Matching the wand and wizard is always an interesting challenge. :)

[mosaic.livejournal.com]

That quiz gave me tulip wood and dragon heartstring. Can wands even be made out of tulip?

[mijan.livejournal.com]

Tulip tree is a type of flowering tree with (if I'm remembering correctly) leaves that vaguely resemble the silhouette of a tulip. Not the same thing as the flowers. So tulip wood is the wood from that tree. :)

[mosaic.livejournal.com]

Ohhhhhh, I get it now! Thanks for the quick botany (or should I say Herbology?) lesson! Also, thank you again for my wand. I adore it.

[loudmeggaphone.livejournal.com]

It said Olive for me. can you even make decent wand out of Olive? I don't like Olives, and most definitely do not want a wand made out of the wood!

I didn't really like the options for what I liked best about myself. That was just weird. And now I am bored again.

[mijan.livejournal.com]

Olive trees have wood that is excellent for wands. I mean, think about it... I make wands out of blueberry wood. Most people wouldn't even THINK of blueberry bushes as being decent for wand-wood, but they are. And olive trees are classics. You don't have to like to EAT olives... but know the symbolism of the tree, and the qualities of the wood. Go look it up. You might be surprised. :)

(Although there ARE other woods that probably suit you far better.)

Gah... I need coffee now.

[lurkitty.livejournal.com]

Heaven forefend we should ever mention anything to do with actual RL witchcraft or pagans. Might give someone the wrong idea.

Hmmm. Rosewood and dragon heartstring. That suits me.

[mijan.livejournal.com]

*gasp* NO!!! Real pagans?!? Heaven forbid!

*snerk*

[kupukello.livejournal.com]

What form of wood do you use for your wands? Is a branch enough, or do you start with a nice, even, tubular piece of wood, or a board, or what? Have you ever made rowan wands? (Oooh! Magical properties!!!) Curly birch? Juniper? What woods have you been using?

[mijan.livejournal.com]

Well... I start with a tree or a shrub, out in the forest. No, I don't use boards or pre-formed wooden dowels or rods. I use real, natural, un-treated wood. Sometimes dry, sometimes green. Sometimes somewhere in-between.

I've used alder, ash, aspen, beech, black cherry, blueberry, dogwood, elm, fire cherry, grey birch, holly, lilac, maple, mulberry, oak, poplar, red maple, river birch, striped maple, willow, and yew. (And I'm pretty sure I'm forgetting some right now.)

I'd like to add butternut, walnut, hawthorn, and hickory to the list, and as many others as I can find. :)

[lizardspots.livejournal.com]

Well, hell. The holiday options are so gosh-darned mainstream and American, I want to puke. I chose New Year's, LOL. The "what I want most" question didn't have "More time to do things", which would theoretically get me all the other options eventually. Heehee.

I got mahogany, 14 inch, unicorn hair. *shrug* :D

[mijan.livejournal.com]

Hmmm... long wand for a little person! *giggle*

And I wanted to puke at the holiday options, too. I mean, the "religious" ones at least reach Christians everywhere, but fuck, Thanksgiving is only American and Canadian, and Independence Day... they mean the 4th of July, which is American only. And WHY THE FUCK do they act like Christmas and Hanukkah are the SAME DAMN CELEBRATION? And then what about every other religion in the world? Stupid person who wrote the test.

However, the rest of the test was kinda fun. *shrugs*

[annulvapore.livejournal.com]

Michelle, allow me to strongly recommend whirlwood.com for all your wand needs. This guy is amazing, produces high quality wands, all of them made in his own shop, authentic, not mass produced, and made with intentions of magic, which is as important as anything else in wand production. He's also an extremely talented and NICE guy, and I'm not just saying that because he gave me my first 'real' wand for free for working at Nimbus ;D. I send everyone I know to whirlwood.com when I see people thinking about wands. =P

[mijan.livejournal.com]

Er... allow me to very politely call you an arse. And an idiot.

I'm a wand maker. I make my own. And I SELL them. Fuck, the guy at Whirlwood wands wanted to MARKET MY WANDS, but I said no because he wanted to big of a cut, and I wanted to remain independent. Plus, I like my wands more. So do most people. I hand-whittle them, so they have a much more authentic feel, instead of a machine-tooled, wood-turned feel. The whirlwood wands are done on a lathe, so even if they're made one-at-a-time, they're still made following patterns, so you can have more than one of a "type". I consider them semi-mass-produced. They're far better than Alivan's, but that doesn't take much.

I actually own a Whirlwoods wand. The guy traded one of mine for one of his. His son uses the wand that I made. People save up money when they know I'm coming to convention so they can buy one of my wands. I individually match them to their wands, Ollivander style. And my customers come back to thank me again later, sometimes more than once, because of how much they love their wands.

So, thank you for trying to send me to my competition to get a wand when I've had my own for ages, and I can make more. I've told my f-list many times that I'm making wands. While I'm sure it was an innocent mistake... it's still rather insulting.

[annulvapore.livejournal.com]

Right.

Well, here is what I know:

- Whirlwood's owner has been nothing but absolutely nice to me, and gave me my wand for free, so I have been sending people to him for over four years now as a result.

- I posted at 6:00 A.M. after a long night of poker where my mind was pretty much gone.

- I think I've read (remembered) about your wand making skills twice in the history of reading your LJ.

It's funny how trying to do something nice for someone who was nice to you can blow up in your face. Obviously if I remembered your business I would not be pushing an opponent in this sort of way -- I may have forgotten your skill set, but you certainly should not have pegged me as the kind of person to do this with any sort of malice =\

[mijan.livejournal.com]

I know you didn't mean it maliciously. And yes, the Whirlwoods guy is really nice. I like him. And before I started carving my own wands as a business, I used to send people to him. He's a hundred times better than Alivans, and I understand why you recommend him to people

And I apologize for posting so harsh of a reply. You posted was after a night of poker. I replied after a night of lousy sleep, really bad dreams, and general stres... and I was being hassled by my fiancee and mother while I was trying to post before I'd even had coffee. I know you weren't being malicious. It just really struck me the wrong way, at the wrong time, when two people were hassling me at once, the dog was pestering me for attention, and all I wanted was ten minutes of quiet to read my LJ and drink my coffee... *sigh* And now the entire family is hassling me again while I'm trying desperately to post. My mother, my in-laws, and a hyperactive 8-year old are invading my tiny apartment today. *sigh* I need more coffee. Or more beer. Irish coffee?

Again, sorry for the harsh reply earlier. Forgive me?

[ionaonie.livejournal.com]

I apparently should have chestnut and Kelpie hair. Huh.

And I just have to say, love, SO love the icon.

Poor, bouncing Draco :-)

[mijan.livejournal.com]

Hehehe... bouncy-bouncy-bouncy...

And I ADORE your icon. There are so many icon-able moments from that Doctor Who episode. THAT, however, was one of the best. :D

[fiona-fawkes.livejournal.com]

AHA! Proof that you didn't go to bed until after 1:17am this morning.

*snickers*

Hi.

[waterbird.livejournal.com]

We have hawthorn everywhere here. You'll just have to come back!

I was foraging for elderberries over the weekend (our woods are full of hawthorn, holly and elder!) and there was a fallen hawthorn tree blocking a path. I took a nice big branch home with me, thinking I might try to make a wand too. :)

[kawaiililme.livejournal.com]

I was disappointed that Imbolc wasn't an option...definitely one of my favorites, yet not even represented :o(