Kakkabish (Fireye) Magic Wand

...in the foothills of Persia when a mad beggar accosted me. He was chased by some soldiers who dragged him away. It was only later that I discovered he had slipped the thing into my bag... After long studies I learned that Fireye was what it was called by most scholars, 'Kakkabish' in the ancient sorcerous language. What I learned of it's long dark history shocked even my hardened sensibilities...    -excerpt from "Modern Wizardy in the Early 1900s" by D. Applegate

This wand was based on a really chunky paintbrush that was done being a paintbrush. Also, my old tired and torn wallet provided the eye that was an integral part of this build. After the first wand (now officially known as "Witchfinger") I started the planning for this one.

The large paintbrush got some additional length with partss of chopsticks and masking tape. It took some time to actually mount the eye because I was unsure how exactly to do it. Eventually I just went for it and broke out the hot glue. Like with Witchfinger, I tried to make interesting squiggles to give the wand an unnatural wooden look.

Then it sat for several months as I tried to decide how best to paint it. Finally, again, I just went for it and primed the wand with a couple of different larger brushes. Then came layers of dark purple drybrush to dark browns and then lighter browns. But the look wasn't quite right. So I broke out some washes and several strategic layers gave me what I was looking for. 

The "handle" area needed some wrapping. Originally I thought maybe some leather would work. But I couldn't find any leather that I thought I had. I found this thicker crepe paper that went on nicely with some thinned glue.

Here we have Witchfinger and Fireye side-by-side. Fireye is almost 17 inches long compared to the measly 13 inches of the Witchfinger.

I'm not into cosplay, but I do like having a couple of lifesize wands laying about the place. You never know when you'll need to do battle with the supernatural threats that linger all around us. Will there be more wands? I've got some ideas kicking around...