Did you know… that a Wand isn’t in the least bit magical?It can’t do a thing. It has absolutely NO power. NOTHING. Let me explain more . . .
All a wand actually is, is a ‘tool’ on which to focus your attention. Believe me, if wands themselves really could do ‘stuff’ all on their own, I certainly wouldn’t collect the pretty wands which I do! (or any other sort of wand for that matter!).
Let me take you back to your school days. Imagine for a moment that you’re sat in the classroom, and you’re giggling and whispering with the girl next to you. Suddenly the teacher’s voice BOOMS out, and shouts your name! You look up and see him standing there, with a cross face, hands on hips. He looks right at you, gives you a stern telling off and tells you that you’re disrupting his class.
Embarrassing eh?
Now let’s replay that scene again . . .
The teacher’s voice BOOMS out, and shouts your name! You look up and see your teacher standing there pointing his index right at you. He’s looking very cross. Looking directly at you but still pointing his finger at you, shaking it the merest amount, he raises his voice and tells you off, – all the time he’s doing this he continues to point that finger at you.
Can you see (and feel) how much more ‘menacing’ the whole scene becomes simply because he’s pointing his finger at you?
That finger doesn’t have anything magical about it, and yet it seems to hold so much more ‘power’.
That’s exactly the same as a wand. All a finger pointing at you is doing is focusing your attention. (and the person who’s pointing at you’s attention). A wand is exactly the same thing. It just focus’ the attention.
Well now I’ve blathered on about how wands don’t have any power, you can perhaps now understand why they don’t ‘freak’ me out, and even why I love to make pretty, magical to the eye, wands! And this ‘Rope a Star’ wand is magical to the eye.
The inspiration for this wand came from my childhood. My mother used to tell me a poem, song, or story (I sadly can’t remember which) when I was little, but I do remember that I loved it. Sadly I cannot remember what the story, song, poem was – and my mother has passed on, so I can’t ask her about it – but I remember a line from it which went something like: ‘I’ll throw a rope out and rope a star just for you’ … and that line conjured up such wonderful images inside my little mind, and it still does now.
So I decided that I would throw a rope out and rope a star – but this time I’d make mine a rope which wrapped itself around a wand, and the stars would hang from the wand itself.
There are little silver stars which dangle from lot’s of places on the wand, and there’s a crescent moon with stars hanging from the heel of the wand (at the top end as you’re looking at it in the photo. The ribbon and star cuff around the top of the wand is removable.
Over the years I’ve tried to find the poem, song or story which mentions this ‘roping in a star’ and I’ve never found it. But if you happen to know it or know where to find it, I’d be thrilled if you could either let me know or pop a link into a comment so that I could go and find it.
Have a truly blessed rest of your day, all, . . . and a fabulously twinkly, star lit night.
At just 6½” in length, this is one of the collection of smaller wands which I make, and I absolutely loved making this one. It has Blue, Green, a deep warm Yellow, and light Lemon. Lavender, Lilac, Orange, Pink, and a wonderful rich Ruby Red. In total, nine colours. Why 9? …
The number 9 has great meaning:
It’s the number of Universal love, eternity, faith.
The spiritual meaning of number Ninebring us to the very height of vibrational frequencies in this number sequence.
Nine represents attainment, satisfaction, accomplishment, and our success to achieve an influence in our circumstances.
Nine deals withintellectual power, inventiveness, influence over situations and things. Nine beseeches us to recognize our own internal attributes, and extend these abilities out into the world to make a positive, influential difference.
In ‘Angel Numbers’, the number 9 is the number of Universal love; eternity; faith; Universal Spiritual Laws; Karma; spiritual enlightenment; spiritual awakening; Light working and Light workers; charity, selflessness; destiny; soul’s purpose and mission; generosity; a higher perspective; romance; inner-strength; responsibility; intuition; strength of character.
It also resonates with creative abilities; sensitivity; inner-wisdom; high ideals; humility; altruism and benevolence; empathy; compassion; artistic genius; an expansive viewpoint; communication; influence; perfection; magnetism; understanding; forgiveness and sympathy; the visionary; duty and calling; obligation; mysticism; optimism and Divine wisdom.
Nine is the number of the hierarchy, represented by nine choruses of the Angels.
It represents the three divine manifestations in the three planes: world of the spirit, world of the soul, world of the matter.
The Bible teaches us the nine spiritual gifts of God enumerated by Saint Paul:
wisdom,
knowledge,
faith,
gift of healing,
to operate miracles,
prophecy,
distinguishing spirits,
to speak in different kinds of tongues
and the gift to interpret them.
Saint Paul enumerates also nine fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, trustfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
I could go on but I think you get the idea. Nine is a beautiful, spiritual, fabulous, magical number, and likewise, this wand is a beautiful, spiritual, fabulous, magical, Wand of all Rainbows.
Once cured, I gave the wand a particular finish which is a favourite of mine. It has the finest twinkly, star-dust motes suspended within its particles. You cannot see specks of glitter or anything like that because it’s not ‘glittery’ in that way at all. It’s quite literally the finest of finest ‘dust‘ of a magical type stuff which is just fantastic. I’m convinced it’s the same stuff that sunbeams and moonbeams are made of! This finish made the wand twinkle, shimmer and dance with merriment. Once sealed, I added a collar of rainbow colours of ribbons, and finally, it was cleansed and blessed by the full moon, in readiness for its new owner.
Can you imagine what this would look like inside a glass case, hanging on the wall? Perhaps one of those box type frames – a picture frame with a deep box behind the glass. It would look great against some plain coloured fabric – maybe even black velvet – to really make the colours pop!
Thank you so much for coming and having a look at the Wand of all Rainbows. I found such joy in the making of it. I love this wand and am hoping that you like it too.
No matter how many photographs I took, where I took the photographs or what backgrounds I tried it against, I couldn’t seem to capture the real essence of this beautiful wand at all. So although the pictures are OK – they’re not the best that they could be. (apologies. – I’m great at ‘making’, but I pose absolutely no threat to David Bailey).
Where I live I have some huuuuge pine trees in my garden which are protected (by law). So it makes sense to use the wood which these trees gift to me by way of high winds etc.
The base which this wand is made from is beautiful pine, which was seasoned naturally and turned from a small broken branch, into a fabulously straight length of pine wood by a friend – who doesn’t use machinery(wood lathes and such) – everything he does is done the good old-fashioned way – which I love.
Measuring 14½” (or 37cm) from the tip to the heel of the wands handle. But not heavy. I know in the photographs it looks like it would be an arm breaker – but it really is very light – weighing just 60 grams – (or 2 ounces in good old-fashioned money). Every time I pick it up it still surprises even me – and I worked with/on it for weeks!
I knew that I wanted to base the wands handle around the Element of Fire, so began working by choosing my colours of clay. Obviously in shades of reds and yellows – both to represent the heat and the colour of flames, – and, because I wanted fiery flames to lick up and along the wand, I had to blend the colours carefully so that they didn’t become muddy – but blended together just as real flames do.
I also added green oak leaves. This was because I wanted to:
To represent a new beginning; a fresh start; new life;and the seasons;
To honour the Green Manwho’s wisdom is of the eternal truths, cycles and passages. The cycle of birth, growth, death and rebirth. He teaches us the sacred truths of nature. He is a magical bridge between nature and ourselves. From the Green Man we learn the mysteries of all growing things, and he is present in all things green and growing. His energy fills the trees which make the oxygen we breathe.
To acknowledge the mystic energy of nature and vegetation;
And also to give a nod to the Land of the Fae.Since the colour green is a faerie colour, I believe they (the Fae) share an affinity with the Green Man, and here in the British Isles faeries are also known as ‘Greenies’ or ‘Greencoats’.
As I fashioned, I became aware of a growing desire to include gems and crystals of significance, so had to ensure that I took care to place these in just the right places so that the stones didn’t interfere with the comfortable holding of the wand in the hand.
Once the wand and it’s handle had gone through its various own ‘fires‘ (of the making variety) – I polished the handle to a lovely smooth finish and added some very tiny glass beads and an assortment of crystals, fixing them along the curves and folds of the flames along the handle – which helped to represent that ‘sparking, sparkling, crackling’ which a true fire has.
I then tipped the wand with gold leaf. It doesn’t want to show up in the photographs – despite me trying a gazillion photographs [sigh] – so you’ll have to imagine that the very point of the wand is tipped in gold leaf which has a fabulous shine and depth.
Finally – I sat for a while and selected what I felt where the right gem stones to add to this wand. I wanted the colours I was choosing to have a specific meaning and also wanted the gem stones themselves to be chosen for the meaning they held, for the many and varied reasons from feng shui through celtic, wiccan, spiritual healing lore, philosophers and mystics all the way to a gentleman called George Frederick Kunz – (who wrote the book The Curious Lore of Precious Stones published in 1913). Kunz wasn’t a mystic crystal-gazer but rather the leading gemologists of his time and the resident gem expert at Tiffany & Co.
Finding the right mix of gemstones and colours was a balancing act – I wanted to get the mix just right. When I was finally happy with my choice, I had: Carnelian. Yellow Jade, Black Onyx, milky green Malachite, Amethyst and Citrine, sat on my work bench, waiting for me to begin work.
The colours symbolize:
Yellow= Wisdom, Joy, Happiness
Black = Self Control & Resilience. Black stones have protective healing energies.
Green = Life, nature, fertility, self-respect & well-being. Green contains the powerful energies of nature.
Purple= Royalty, magic and mystery. The colour of good judgement & of people seeking spiritual fulfilment. Purple is a good colour to use in meditation.
White= White is purity and cleanliness and the complete energy of light. It stands for wholeness and completion.
Carnelian was chosen because: (amongst many reasons:) Carnelian is associated with the element of fire and it has a projective energy that balances all forces. Carnelian holds a very special place in the Christian religion. According to holy scriptures, carnelian was one of the twelve gemstones worn on the breastplate of Aaron, the first high priest of the Israelites and a prophet.
Yellow Jade was chosen because: Jade is said to bless whatever it touches, serving mankind across the globe for nearly 6,000 years, and valued for its beauty and powers of healing and protection. It is the ultimate “Dream Stone,” revered in ancient cultures, as well as today, to access the spiritual world, gain insight into ritualistic knowledge, encourage creativity, and dream-solve. Jade signifies wisdom gathered in tranquility, dispelling the negative and is the stone of calm in the midst of storm.
Black Onyx was chosen because: it is said to have protective properties and to bring inner strength, self-confidence aid intuition and help with mental discipline, It’s believed to help to release negative emotions and alleviate fear and anxiety. Some cultures believe it to be unlucky, however others consider it to be virtuous and to protect against black magic.
Malachite was chosen because: it is a protection stone, absorbing negative energies, and shows what is blocking your spiritual growth, draws out deep feelings and psychosomatic causes, then allows you to break unwanted ties and outworn patterns. It supports friendships and empathy for other people. NB: Malachite is toxic and should be used only in its polishedform.
Amethyst was chosen because: it is known as a stone of protection. Amethyst is a gemstone often worn by healers, as it has the power to focus energy, and it has long been used to open the spiritual and psychic centers, making it one of the power stones. It’s also known as the Bishop’s Stone and is still worn by Catholic Bishops. The amethyst symbolizes piety, humility, sincerity and spiritual wisdom.
Citrine was chosen because: Citrine is a joyful stone with bright energy which lights up many aspects of lives of those who work with it. It has energies of good fortune and good luck, though these may appear in unexpected ways.. It’s known as the ‘success stone’, since it is believed to promote prosperity and abundance, and because citrine can clear negative energy and influences from the aura, it is useful for meditation, psychic awareness, and spiritual development. Citrine is one of the most valuable and popular gemstones in the quartz group. Citrine also does not absorb any negative energies from its surroundings, and thus never needs energetic clearing..
And that, ladies and gentlemen readers, is the Element of Fire Wand. I hope you like it.
The photograph above doesn’t show the daintiness: the apparent delicacy or the true beauty of this little handmade wand. To see how intricate this really is you need to see it with the human eye, however, I’ve managed to capture a little of the details by taking a ‘closer up’ photograph which helps to show a little more of the adornments. and the fineness, both in the appearance and the work which went into making this incredible little work of heart.
Close up of the Angel Feathers Wand
The wooden part of the wand is made from gifted pine wood, which was crafted by hand, by a wood worker, into a short, beautiful, almost straight length, just right for what I had in my minds eye. Pine was chosen for this wand because it offers the properties of protection, healing, rejuvenation, strength, life, purification and … a wonderful added bonus .. it attracts money! (and I don’t think I know anyone who couldn’t do with a little more of that!)
The handle of the wandwas crafted. Made entirely of individual, handmade white Angel Feathers. Each one is completely different from any other. [Nomould was used in the making of the feathers]. As each feather was made it was transferred to the wand and slowly but surely the handle was born. Gold dust was then applied, with a very fine paint brush, to the tips of all the feathers, in order to give them their own glowing light.
At the head of the handle is a large white pearl, and further pearls can be found dotted throughout the handle, tucked between, or peeping out from beneath various feathers. There are then more pearls which are hung from tiny silver loops hidden within the folds of the feathers, and further tear-drop pearls which hang from little gold chains.
Pearls were chosen for this incredibly special wand both because of their association with the moon, and also because of their symbolism of purity, innocence, faith and honesty.
There are also Opals hung from the handle – a beautiful gemstone, chosen because it’s a stone of inspiration which enhances imagination and creativity. A protective stone; a stone for love; and associated with peace, and consciousness.
In various places on the wand handle there are literally hundreds of the tiniest golden glass beads – which give the appearance of something bubbling forth from beneath the feathers – and the ‘something’ I envisioned that this represented, was love.
The whole wand symbolises love, happiness, warmth, and joy – and in keeping with the traditions of wand making, the wand was blessed and charged, before being passed to its destiny owner.
Thank you so much for coming to read. I really loved making this wonderful little wand and am proud to be known as its maker. I so hope you like it too.
I’ve had some Tilda images knocking around my stash for about the last two years, and although I loved them (very much) I hadn’t actually done anything with them. (more I think because I didn’t want to – because if I used them, then I wouldn’t have them anymore … fellow crafters will probably ‘get’ what I mean).
But I’m trying to cut down on my stash and use up some of the things I’m hanging onto because I’m fast running out of space in the Emporium (aka ‘the craftroom’). So in an effort to at least look as if I’m cutting down, I’m using some of those Tilda images.
It’s an Easel Card, so meant to be displayed ‘open’ so that the suprise interior is on show. But when closed, the card looks like this:
an invitation to: Tea and Cakes with Tilda
The blue gingham paper was something I’ve had around the Emporium for a time, ditto the teeny tiny buttons and the padded gingham star. But the interior paper – the pink roses & polka dots – was from a pad of pretty paper which I bought about four months ago. The ‘stitching’ was all done by hand using a very fine nib pen.
Thanks for visiting! Have a blessed rest of your day, all.
Sometimes there comes to life in a sculptors hands, something so magical, so incredible, that it’s not ‘of this world’, and this was true of the Once Upon a Wand. It was always meant to be admired; loved, but for its magic to be contained, unused, held behind glass. Behind that glass, time stood still. No spell was or would ever be cast. The key to its magic was a secret which wasn’t to ever be unlocked.
You see … just like in Fairy Tales, magic brings a fairy tale to life – but the magic which could be cast with this wand was something that this world isn’t ready for. It’s magic is too beautiful, and this earth is, right now, not beautiful enough in some places.
The Sands of Time stand still, held in a magic spell, behind glass.
Time in our world is a baddy. Time is something we all try to work to. We have to ‘be on time‘; We sometimes can’t ‘make time‘; We don’t always ‘have the time‘; Time is the master. ‘You’d better be on time’; ‘The time is now‘; ‘What’s the time?’; ‘Oh no, is that the time??’; We try to turn back the time. We wish we had the time. We don’t want time to pass us by. Oh, I could go on, but I think you can see what I’m saying,
So, here, with the Once Upon a Wand, time literally has stood still. The Sands of Time are frozen behind the glass, and cannot go anywhere. I’ve actually ‘tamed’ the monster which time is in our world.
details from the Once Upon a Wand made by Cobwebs
Along with The Sands of Time, also sealed behind the glass is a real crystal ball, from the land of the Fae, and a magic spell which was mixed by a white witch and sealed in the enameled glass bottle, sealed with a cork and wax.
Close up details showing the hidden key to the magic of the Once Upon a Wand made by Cobwebs
There is though a secret key. Hidden to all, but visible to those who care to look for it. A silver key, hung from a real silver chain. Doesn’t look like much, does it? Ahhh, but it’s normally those things which look the most normal, that might hold the secret to something . . . interesting. Am I going to tell you about this key? No – of course not. For if I did … it wouldn’t be a secret any longer, would it!
Before the Wand was actually finished; and before it was blessed by the moon and finally sealed behind glass, I took a photograph of it, in the hope of catching the colours of the handle.
Close up of the handle of the Once Upon a Wand made by Cobwebs
The handle is three different colours. Gold, Coppery Bronze, and Silver,which all swirl around the shaft of the wand and grow thicker to form a comfortable handle. Added to the handle is a river of Peridot stones which follow the swirls of the handle and curl around it, until it connects with the gifted wood from which the wand was fashioned.
Finally – there are 5 stars hung from the wand. There are two radiant, rainbow Aurora Borealis glass stars and 3 silver stars – the two small silver stars represent the Morning Star and the Evening Star, and the largest silver star, hung from the very end of the handle, nearest the wrist, is the Wish Star.
Once Upon a Wand designed and made by Cobwebs
I hope you like the wand. I’m thrilled to be able to share it with you.
There is a lot to learn before embarking on the making of a wand, as I found out some years ago when I was asked to make my very first wand, so I took the time to research it properly and understand the ‘requirements’, both of me as the wand maker, and a wand user. I also sought help from a wand user of many years, especially so when I came across anything which I wasn’t sure about or questioned to be true. (There are many things I came across which aren’t strictly a requirement, but merely something that one particular person might want).
Photographing wands is, I’ve found, easier when I’m taking pictures of smaller wands, because you can get in closer to a smaller wand but still keep the whole of the wand in view. Taking a photograph of a 12″wand, or longer, is more difficult as the closer you get to the details, the more you lose of the rest of the wand and so have no perspective of the size of the details being shown to the rest of the wand.
Aw .. you’ll see what I mean when you see some photographs! I’ll post photographs every now and again, as I get around to taking and editing photographs. I hope you enjoy them, but let me know! You can leave comments or even click to ‘like’.
. . . ‘inthe beginning’ was the start of the journey . . .
links hands in front of herself; looks down at her shoes Feels the start of a hot blush coming to her cheeks. Takes a deep breath in and says loud and proud . . .
“Hello my name is Cobwebs, and I’m a Crafter.”
There, that’s my confession out of the way, – now we can all sit down and eat cakes. YUM!
I’ve been a arty farty crafty all my life. From painting on a large scale, (spring flowers in a grassy meadow – on a school reception wall), right down to very small scale ATC’s which are miniature works of art measuring just 2 1⁄2 by 3 1⁄2 inches (or 64 mm × 89 mm in metric measurements).
Amongst many thingsI love to craft, make and work with, are:
hand crafted greeting cards.
needle felting – so relaxing – and amazing too! But painful if you get a bit cocky and look at the TV while doing it. (don’t do that – it hurts!);
Ranger Melting Pot – known here in the Emporium as ‘The Cauldron‘.
Polymer Clay – from the tiniest of flowers and Fairy Shoes (yes – fairy sized shoes) all the way up to long 12″ in length wands, a mixture of wood and clay and various ‘adornments’.
But . . . there’s more than just the few things I’ve listed above.
Please take a look around here on the Cobweborium Emporium blog – and perhaps even click to *Follow Me*, just by:- simply clicking the button over to the right, towards the top of the page. By doing that you’ll get an email to tell you when I’ve added something to the blog which you might like to take a peep at. (Yes, it’s that simple! You just click to follow me and then enter your email address. You won’t receive spam or rubbish, just an email to tell you a couple of lines about the new article I’ve posted on the blog here, and a link to click if you want to, which will take you straight to the new article!)
I plan to put as much effort in as possible into this ‘ere blog and hopefully have a little fun with everyone at the same time too … and I hope to bring you something(s) that you perhaps you might not have seen before as well. Oh . . . and you can leave comments too on this blog, so feel free to introduce yourself and say hello. I’d love to get to know the folks who are reading.
Have a truly blessed rest of your day! ~
P.S . . . You can find all the categories on The Cobweborium Emporium blog by looking over to the right in the column>>>over there >>>and finding:- ‘Categories on this Blog’ (the listed ‘names of categories’ underneath that title are all clickable and one click on any of those categories will take you directly to the category you’ve chosen).
You can alsoclick on the individual category names along the black bar – towards the top of every page. (except the Home Page, that’s not along the black bar – that’s over to the right with the others).
The Art of Cobwebs 