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Creativity is a big part of the Wizards life. On this page I will show you some of the art and crafts I have made in the past few months. The options are endless and could provide you with many of the tools you will want in your Wizard endeavors.
They could also provide you with a cash income, allowing you to concentrate on your Wizardry studies.
Best of all, the attention to detail, creativity and skills you will use in creating interesting craft items will mirror your path through the Wizardly world.
In the beginning there will be failures , driving you on to better and better work. With each item you make there will be a first, or prototype. Just like in the real world, after you have made your artistic effort you will see ways to produce better results in a shorter time for less expenditures in materials and man hours.
Equate this with your Wizardly path and you will learn a valuable lesson.
I highly suggest you learn how to carve and do basic leather work. These two crafts will be the basis for many other craft endeavors that will serve you well.
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Every good Wizard or Witch need a Besom. The traditional stick broom is used in many cultures to ward off evil, sweep away unfavorable conditions and even join couples in marriage. Start with a suitable sapling. Cut the sapling and place it in a warm place for a month to cure. This is a lesson in planning ahead and patience |
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Gather a bundle of small twigs, about eight to 12 inches around, depending on the size of the besom you want. Bundle them lightly with twine and let them dry. Visit your local leather shop and purchase a large spool of rawhide. A cheep way to make your own rawhide strapping is to purchase rapped rawhide doggie chew bones. Soak the rawhide for two days and then cut it into a long thin spiral. Start with a small bundle of sticks and begin weaving the straw around the handle, using the wet rawhide. |
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Set your broom aside and let the rawhide dry. As it dries it will tighten around the straw and handle and hold them firmly to the handle. You can wrap the bundle in a braid or a tight wrap to make it look good. I went an extra step and leather tooled a rectangular piece of leather with a Celtic knot and then added a Celtic button I found. I then wrapped the wet leather around the top of the bundle and laced it in the back to hold it in place |
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Carving is a mainstay for the Wizard. You can make charms, amulets, and other items to use in your spell work. I like working in wood, clay and vegetable or tropical ivory. Tropical ivory is the nut of the palm tree and it has the look of Ivory. There is white and tan or "old ivory" available. |
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This is a Keek-Stane. It is a Scottish scrying stone or the equivalent of a crystal ball. The box is an off the shelf wooden box from a craft store. Using wood carving tools or a Dremel tool you can carve any pattern you wish. Then stain the box. |
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The interior of the lid has a book plate used by a famous Wizard that I adapted in a graphics program to have my face. The scrying mirror can be purchased from several occult sources or you can make your own. In ancient times they used tar to cover the outside of a bowl shaped glass. Today a good gloss black enamel paint does a great job. Paint the outwardly curved side then let it dry. Mount it in the box with a soft backing and lock it in place with a lid that has a hole cut to access the mirror. |
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For more information on construction I suggest you get a copy of Raymond Bucklands book "Scottish Witchcraft" It has all the info you will need. |
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This is a carved Celtic Triquetra. This symbol has been used by many religious groups, from Pagan to Christian. This form of the icon is in its simplest form sometimes called the trinity sign. It represents the threefold nature of life. Carved with hand tools on a wooden disk purchased from a chain hardware/lumber store. |
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Every magical person needs a wand. A wand is a tool; it is simply a means of focusing your intent to achieve an aim. These are carved from Oak using a carving blade. The handles were drilled out to form a hollow pocket and the opening plugged with a selected crystal. |
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This is a selection of wands ranging from hand carved to lathe carved. All were made by me for our use. These wands use exotic woods and are of the finest quality. You can purchase hand made, designed by us or to your design from Olde Hearth Magical Merchandise. |
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Garden Runes. Here is an easy project, garden runes. They look like they are carved in solid stone. In reality they are carved in a substance called feather rock. It looks like rock, will hold up to weather and water like rock but can be carved with any metal object. Feather rock can be purchased at any large garden supply. |
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This is a Celtic/Irish love spoon. Hand carved with a pocket knife I gave it to my wife as a Valentines Day present. The top is our symbol and the spoon is in the shape of a heart |
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You can purchase from any art supply bake hardening or air hardening clay. With it you can mold, carve and shape any number of tools, icons and idols. This Mool is a reproduction of one found in a historic dig in Scotland. |
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A wizards staff is one of his most important tools. As your carving skill's improve you will probably want to carve your own staff. This staff has the face of an ancient wizard. It's name is Wilfred (Will for short") after one of my early mentors. |
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This project took almost a year to complete and we are now working on a second volume. It is a basic informational book with all of our beliefs. Most of the time was taken in the writing. |
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This illustrations , tooled cover and binding took about two months working about two hours a day. |
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Many of the illustrations were modeled on medieval illustrated manuals. You will finding binding instructions below. |
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All Clanns have a Clann sword, this Claymore is the symbol of Clann Thomson for my family. The Celtic decorated cross it is mounted on was hand carved to display the sword in my home. |
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The wood is Oak, a sacred wood to the Druids. The Celtic designs all have a meaning and represent the unity of the clann. |
Bind It Fast
Make or repair a Grimoire or Book of Shadows with this easy technique.
Does your journal look as though it has been read by a grizzly bear? Are pages falling out of your favorite novel? Has the cover come off of your copy of "The Hobbit?"
You don't have to buy new copies. It's easy to repair paperback books using Japanese bookbinding techniques. Just punch four holes through the book near the spine and lash it together with needle and thread. You can make sketch books, scrapbooks or blank books this way, too. To make smaller books, fold several sheets of paper paper carefully into halves or quarters, clamp the stack together and punch and bind it, then slit the pages apart with a sharp knife afterwards, being careful not to cut the binding threads.
To rebind a paperback you will need an awl or thin wire brads, heavy thread (eight times as long as the book 's height), a needle, pencil, and ruler. Use carpet thread, strong nylon thread, or waxed dental floss. If you use wire brads instead of an awl you'll want a small hammer. Binder clips are useful, too. For a scrapbook or blank book cut covers from card stock or a file folder.
Here's what you do:
1. Using a ruler, draw a
line from top to bottom of the front cover, about 1/4"from the
spine. Make two marks on this line, one 1/4' down from the top of
the book, the other 1/4" up from the bottom. Now divide the
distance between these marks into thirds and mark the two middle
points.
2. Even up the pages and clamp
the book together with binder clips, or weight down the front
edge to keep the pages from moving. Protect your work surface
with a piece of scrap wood or an old phone book as you punch a
hole at each of the marked points using the awl or wire
brads.
Making these holes should not damage the text in the book. Most paperback books have an inner margin of 1/2" to 3/4", leaving plenty of room for rebinding.
3. Thread the needle
and tie the ends together with an overhand knot. Open the book a
few pages and, next to the lower middle hole, push the needle
through about twenty pages. Pull the thread through until the
knot is snug against the pages. Go back out to the front cover by
pushing the needle up through the awl hole. This step anchors the
thread.
4. Now sew the rest of the book as shown in the accompanying illustrations. Pull the thread tight each time you go through a hole.
Go around the back and back up through the starting hole, then
down through the other middle hole. Pull the thread tight after
going through each hole.
Around the back again, then up through the top hole.
Around the back, then...
...around the top of the spine and up through the top hole again.
Keep going, down through one middle hole, back up through the
next, and down through the bottom hole. Keep the thread
tight.
Around the back again and...
...around the bottom of the spine and back through the bottom
hole. Go up through the starting hole again.
To finish, tie off the thread so the binding won't come loose. Do
this by slipping the needle under two of the top threads coming
out of starting hole and back through the loop to form a tight
knot.
Run the needle back down through the starting hole and cut the
leftover thread flush with the back of the book.
Another Book Binding Method
I surfed the net to find out if there were any
tricks to self-binding--there weren't any (well, not until now)!
One web site laid out the basic principles of neatly binding a
book, but that entailed buying an apparatus from the web site
owner at a cost and time frame of delivery that I could not take.
So I started thinking and experimenting. What follows is a
distillation of the
steps I learned to perfectly bind a book-yes, you can achieve
flawless, machine-precision book binding without investing in a
binding machine.
To begin with, you wouldn't even need some heavy-duty glue. An
all-purpose white glue that bonds fast which you can find at any
ordinary office supplies shop will do. You see, the trick is not
in the glue-it's how you use that glue!
Next, make sure the pages that you will bind are folded
perfectly. Take a piece of ordinary coupon bond and fold this in
half-cross-wise, not lengthwise. The size should resemble a
typical book. To make sure you fold the paper perfectly, don't
taper off the middle until you have both ends of the paper
exactly matched. If you don't do that, I can assure you, you will
never achieve perfect binding. Some of the pages would protrude
like sore thumb!
Once you have neatly folded and flattened all the book pages, put them all together on the table-one on top of each other, arranged exactly the way the pages in your book are supposed to look when read. Hold the book's top and bottom, and as you do, tap it's yet unbound outer spine on the table to make sure that all the pages line up perfectly.
That done, clip the middle part of the book with one hand, then replace the pressure with two metal clips, which, again can be pretty much any type (snap on or clip on) you can buy from a school supplies shop. After all, you will only need them temporarily. The idea is to hold the yet unbound book perfectly until you are ready to glue the spine (which is the back of the book, or in other words, the part to be glued or bound). Apply the clips strategically at the top and the bottom of the spine.
That done, get yourself at least two pieces of cotton swabs (yes, the ones you use for your ears). You have no idea how useful these are for the binding job at hand. On the table, put them on top of a tissue paper. Now, dip one end of the first cotton swab in the glue and apply the glue on the spine while carefully holding the book. Think as if you are doing a wall painting job. Make sure you cover the entire spine and that the "paint" is evenly applied. It doesn't have to be very thick as most likely your first attempt will be-but that's okay, as that will not affect the quality of your binding. Use the other end of your cotton swab to repeat the process if necessary. The cotton swab is better than any glue applicator for this purpose because you can use it to wipe out any excess glue, too.
The result is the most even application that you
can achieve. That was just the first coating. Here's how you do
the final coating-that second cotton swab has a purpose! Position
the book's spine at the edge of the table, then put a telephone
directory on top of it. Make sure your book's spine is
protruding
outside of the edge of the table! Now you are ready to apply the
second coating of the glue.
Do it the same way you did the first time, wiping off excess glue with the cotton swab to even out the application. By now, the glue earlier applied would have already began to dry -giving your book that solid look which gives you that growing confidence that you're on the right track.
Your second glue application finished, leave the
book alone to dry. Thirty minutes should be just fine. While you
are waiting, make use of the time by working on the cover which
in this case is a paperback stock. By now, from the way the book
pages have bonded together-you can estimate with your eyes the
width of the spine. Draw two vertical pencil lines on the inner
part
of the book cover-make sure the space in between is the exact
width of the spine.
Then, with the help of sturdy ruler, fold the
cover along the lines pretty much like you were a machine doing
some flawless perforation (e.g., creating a permanent fold on the
paper). Now it's time to apply glue to the space between the two
lines of the book cover. There is really no need to apply too
much. That done, pick up the book you left to dry out, and slide
its spine
snugly in between the covers.
If you did a pretty good fold or perforation job on the two lines of the cover, the book's spine should just fit perfectly into the space inside the cover. Again, leave the book (now with the cover attached) under your ever-dependable telephone directory. An hour should be just enough to do the job, and you have yourself a perfectly bound book.
You don't have to be rich to be a
Wizard:
When I first started to study and practice, I was entranced by
all of the beautiful crystals, tools, and accessories, I just had
to have them all right then! I spent quite a lot of money I
wanted all things associated with the ritual to be shiny and new
or ancient." I am still paying for that mistake.
I have also discovered that I have everything I need right here, but do not need it all! I can always change a candle spell to another type of spell, so why did I feel I had to have over 70 candles? Now granted it can be very hard to find black candles except around Halloween, but white ones you can find anytime.
I suggest a simple kit for beginners, to be added to a little
at a time. Essentials would be:
Blessing incense candles (opt.)essential oils, salt and if you
can afford it a divination tool is always a great thing to
have.
With these few items you can create dozens of spells!
Cut your candles into thirds if you use tapers. Better yet tea candles can be purchased for as little as $4.00 a hundred, if you look around. Sage, rosemary and salt makes a great ritual bath, and sandalwood is good for most anything, Dilute it into olive oil if you want to really save money, it makes a wonderful candle dressing, anointing oil. Sprinkling basil around is a great banisher, where basil is no evil can reside.
I am sure creatively you can think of a lot of ways to save money, and most of the time will see that it is a more natural process to grow your own herbs instead of buying them, if that is possible for you.
You can buy your books used, find tools at flea markets (cleanse thoroughly of course) , and there are lots of great guided meditation sites online, Desktop Meditations has several to choose from . Also utilize your public library every chance you get, There are some really great works on history and philosophy out there, and some great videos as well! PBS regularly schedules documentaries on all kinds of topics of interest to pagans.
If any of this has
interested or angered you,
please send me an E-Mail and
let's talk about it.
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is my opinion and my opinion alone. I make no claims that the
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your own conclusions.
It is not my wish or intent to disrespect anyone or any religious belief. I respect your right to believe as you wish and hope you will extend the same courtesy to me.
