A wizards staff on the cheap

I'm going to the next Australian Discworld Convention!  Yay!  And for a variety of reasons, I decided to be a wizard.  However, I was missing one of the most important elements- a staff.

Since there is very little call in my day to day life for a wizards staff, I had to aquire one.  And since I did not want to spend a lot of money, I wanted to DIY one.  Total cost I estimate (given I had many materials already) is around $10 in consumables and that could be less if you decide on a different knob (I did play with a few options before deciding on my final form).

Materials needed

• Thin sticks: NB  I used reeds I already had.  These are the home decor fancy reeds, about 1 metre long each, that I bought from the Reject Shop for a different project and I used 8-9 for my staff.  Cost- $6 (but were leftovers)

• Masking Tape (Cost- $2 only because I only had a little left on the roll I already had so I had to buy more!)
• Hot Glue Gun and glue (Cost- $10 for the gun but I've wanted one for a while so this was an excuse, $5 for the glue and I had some left)
• Paint (Cost- already had, otherwise two or three shades of brown and one of a metal colour.  I used a metalic copper pen)
• 1.25L soft drink bottle (Cost- nothing, pulled from recyling bin!)
• 'Knob' :  I used a oval rechargable light that shifts through different colours.  I bought it years ago so the cost was not a factor.  If you don't have or want to buy one though, then my alternate option I was initially going to go with was a cheap plastic Christmas bauble.
• Knife/scissors/paint brushes and other misc supplies

The only thing I had to specifically buy to finish this project was some replacement masking  and a hot glue gun that I wanted to get for general use anyway so I'm happy!  But enough of my frugal gloating, on with the method.





First step was to lay the sticks out.  Because individually they are relatively fragile, I used three or so bundled together for the length of the staff.  Since they were shorter than my final length, I staggered them so that all together they would lie on the floor to the length that I wanted.  Once I was happy there were no sections with multiple ends in the one place (which would create a weak point in my staff) I tapped them together with masking tape.  Easiest way to do this is to first tape around the sticks in several sections to hold the multiple reeds together, then work from one end to the other, spiralling around and along the length of the staff.

Continue adding tape.  Extra layers add strength and shape the piece so you end up with a slightly bumpy length that looks very much like a long stick.  The advantage though is that your masking tape/stick construct will be much lighter than an equivalent length of solid wood.

Next step is the carving.  This was very easy and rather fun- get your hot glue out and use the glue gun to make whatever mystic signs and symbols that take your fancy- I couldn't resist the urge to have my staff feature (among other things) a footnote!

Once you are happy, it's time to paint.  For the most realistic look, start with a medium brown and give the whole thing a solid coat of paint.  Once it is dry, go back with the darker brown and very roughly paint it.  You want missing gaps and streaks.  Finally, use a fine brush and with the light brown paint, paint thin lines or highlights.  To make these subtle, you may even wish to use a cloth to wipe away and smear out the lighter colour.

Once you are happy with the wood look, you can go onto your mystic signs (the hot glue bits).  I used a metallic copper coloured pen and I found the pen was really easy to use to apply to the raised hot glue bits.

Now you could stop here.  However, at least in the Discworld universe, it is a well known fact that wizard's staffs have a knob on the end*.  But how to put it on?  I was going to tape it on and incorporate it in the initial construction but then I came up with my light idea.  But there was a catch- I had to be able to take the light off to recharge it as needed so I couldn't permanently fix it.

So here is how to make a super simple and cheap knob holder (*snigger*).  I got a 1.25 litre soft drink bottle and cut the top off.  I then trimmed it to shape so that it would easily hold my light.  The top of my staff was happily smaller than the opening of the drink bottle so all I had to do was hot glue it into place.  Incidentally, yes, hot glue is now my new favourite costume creation tool.  To somewhat disguise the bottle origins, I then put more hot glue on the outside to cover and blur the screw top ridges.  Then the copper pen came out to paint the plastic and finish it off.

And here it is!  Now I realise it isn't a perfect disguise- if I spent more time and added more glue I could make it look more realistic and natural.  Alternatively, wrapping string or wire around the join would also improve the look but I suspect with the time I have left and the other elements I need to do, this might be enough for me.

Here's the finished staff- it's approximately the same height as me and, although surprisingly bendy, it is able to stand up under it's own weight while not being very heavy.

Next on the list is the beard and hat.  And robes.  And working out what to wear under the robes.  Oh my...



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* And there is a well known country folk song that celebrates this fact

A bit of a dye-lema

OK, apparently dyeing causes an irresistible urge to pun when making blog posts!  Fortunately for you I've finished for the present and here is the result of those experiments.  My previous post showed my colour experiments with some mini melusine samples.

Well I decided to go with a blue green system but to tweak the colours a little to brighten them up.  I gathered my supplies and set up my base of operations, supervised by my neighbour's cat (you can just see her legs at the top of shot.

All I had to do was paint in each block.  Nice and simple.

Four and a half hours later, one major disaster when one of the dyes tipped over onto the shawl and having to remix both the light green and blue stocks and I was very happy to take this photo because it meant I was done!

It's now wrapped up and bagged in some black plastic bags to let it heat set in the car.  Typically to my luck so far, the weather has become a little cooler (now I want a 40+ C day, there's none to be seen on the forecast!).  Still, it could've been much worse and I'm cautiously pleased with the results. I won't be 100% sure of results until I give it a wash and see that the dye has properly set!

I'm dyeing, I'm dyeing...

A while ago a friend put me onto The AntiCraft! website which has a whole range of craft projects that vary in type and complexity.  And I found Melusine, a lovely hand dyed shawl that not only was my first 'hey, you can dye knitting after knitting' but also went on to explain 'and here is how'.  Since one important part is being able to heat set the dye but they pointed out that placing the material in a black plastic bag and placing it into a hot car, and since I live in Australia (which is known for hot!) it seemed providential!

So a knitting I went.  I had some 2 ply wool/silk yarn in my stash that was waiting for inspiration so it seemed povidential.  But since I have never dyed anything before and since it took a long time to make the shawl, I thought it prudent to make a few mini versions to experiment with.  And here's my dye results.

The first I tried was a blue green version.  The colours set incredibly well but were a little darker than I think I like so if I go with this for the big one, I'll cut back on the black dye.  Particularly for the greens


I also didn't have any paint brushes handy so I used cotton buds.  These allowed for great control of the dying, but it took much longer than I thought it would.  When sitting on concrete outside hunched over a small scarf, this is Not A Good Thing.

The long time and the weather meant I had a break before doing the next one- I was NOT going to sit outside on a 40+º C day.  Today was cooler (bliss!) so I set up for number 2.

This one was inspired by one I saw on Ravelry.  However, I had a number of technical issues that made this a challenge.  First was that for some strange reason the yellow and red dyes did not dissolve nicely the way that the two green and two blue stocks I had despite them all coming from the same company (Jaccard Acid Dyes) and using the same method (chemistry is strange!).  The yellow didn't dissolve well which was annoying but not the end of the world.  The red though, was just strange.

Initially it was fine- placed the powder into warm water.  Dissolved the lot, no problems.  Then the stock cooled.  Except it didn't just cool, it partially set.  Think jelly made up with a bit too much water.  The resulting mix was very viscous, sludgy and a bit lumpy.  Couple this with the bright red colour and the result does have a disturbing resemblance to prop blood from CSI or something similar

It also was a pain to measure out into the working mixture since it was so incredibly viscous.  I ended up with the scientific measure of 'a gloop' and stirring like crazy to try and get it mixed into the mix with limited success.

And to top it all off there is a big splodge where the fabric slipped when wrapping it in gladwrap for heat setting the dye- so a big dark bit was in contact with a yellow bit.  You can see the resulting splodge on the left hand side in the photo above.  *sigh*

Still, it could all be worse- this all could've happened on my big shawl!  Weather is warming up again next week so I'll see if I can get this done before it's too hot and/or I have to go back to work.

Shrinkies... kindof.

I saw an interesting pin on Pinterest that suggested that plastic containers that looked to be that found from the supermarket bakery items would be used to make Shrinkies.  Sadly, I broke rule one on Pinterest (that rule that seems to be rather common to break if Pinstrosity is any guide!)- I didn't read the original link.  So instead of cool shrinkie stuff, I've got a bit of a disaster instead.  D'oh!

See after the fact I realised that I used Type 1 plastic while shrinkie plastic is actually type 6.  Type 1 plastic it turns out does shrink a bit but also curls up randomly and turns white after heading.  And even my Chinese take out container I used in desperation (bottom right) turned out not to shrink at all.

An investigation of my fridge and cupboards for type 6 plastic was futile, so it looks like if I do decide I want to play with some shrinkie ideas I'll have to splash out for sheets instead.  Oh well!

Modifying a beaded tree

First of all, I have to warn you I'll not be talking about how to make the tree itself.  This tree was a kit I bought from the last Melbourne craft convention (their shop link is here) that comes in a with and without bead decorations version.  This is about how I modified mine in order to have some lights built into the tree.

The lights were just some simple LED lights that run off two AA batteries.  Best time to get them would be just after Christmas in the sales so if you are thinking of making a tree, now is the time to plan your shopping!  I got mine from Kmart but I've also seen them in the Reject Shop and similar as well.

Assembly with the lights is fiddly- if you had a second pair of hands or a clamp it might help, otherwise just take your time and have your branches organised.  The tree is assembled as in the instructions but you include the LED lights in as well, starting with the end furthest from the battery pack.

As you move down the tree, gradually include each LED, wrapping the excess wire along the trunk.  Work out how many LEDs you need as you go (my tree had 9 rows of branches so it works out to 'Twoish' per row).  Once you finish the tree then wrap the wire in the floral tape until your tree is the right height and mount the tree on the box as per the instructions.  If you were fancy you could rig a way to hide the wire but I find I can fit the battery pack into the box anyway and the wire can run around under the lid.

I really like the finished effect, if I do say so myself.  Particularly how the bead decorations catch the lights.

The lantern is another Pinterest inspiration.  Fill a lantern with baubles for a simple decoration.  I just added some more LED lights in there to brighten it up a bit.  The lights are powered by the battery pack hidden under the paua shell in the first image.