The Story so far

But at the age of 43, I never carved wood before I picked up a fell oak branch and whittled it into a magic wand for my 5-year-old daughter. but here’s why I started…

I was always terrible at school, not bad, just not great at the academia. Like a fish with an abacus. but the art classes I enjoyed the hell out of. From K to 12 I took all the classes. at 21 I graduated from the Art Institute of Philadelphia with a degree in illustration, I soon found out that I was at the sunset of handmade formal illustration as a growth career. Computer illustration and design were the big dogs now. In hindsight, I probably should’ve gone right back in learned computer aided design. So, as it happens, I fell out of the arts as the 9-5 took up the lion’s share of my time and energy. I still created art, but it didn’t have the same inspiration that it had when I was in my teens and twenties. life gets hard sometimes. But eventually I met my wife, we had a daughter, we carried on with our lives. and the amount of art I created dwindled and wasn’t as fulfilling. It was still there, just hollow and thin. So, while on vacation, I whittled a simple magic wand out of an Oak stick, wide as your thumb, long as a sheet of paper. I’d never carved anything, and it was simple and crude, but I loved the way the grain exposed itself in each shaving. and how the form was in the wood, I just had to take away the extra wood from top of it. the sanding and forming gave clarity and focus. Staining and painting it brought it to life. There was something about a tactile, physical form that brings art to the hands. And I thought about what I would do differently, how it would have looked with an art deco shape, or with a bend to it. About 3 months later my wife noticed that I was growing more fatigued by my job, she asked me “well what DO you want to do with your life?!” and I blurted out that I wanted to carve magic wands, the most bat shit plan ever, and my wife, my sun and stars, my touchstone, says to me “ok, do it!” The kindest, most supportive gesture imaginable. I decided to change my life’s course.

At this point in my many decades on the earth, I had made a chess board in High School, made a few risers, and footstools, but that was about it, so I carved a few more wands out of scraps that I found lying about, branches, chunks of firewood, but wanted to make pieces that were finer, more symmetrical, and smoother. the kind of quality that can only be gotten by lathe, but I had never touched a lathe before, but knew I wanted one. I did my research, watched countless YouTube videos, watched some more, did some more research, studied specs, narrowed my searches for equipment, bought a 30-year-old Sears craftsman lathe, and some chisels, and skews, gouges, and parters from Harbor Freight. I broke my first attempted turned piece, and my second, third, and fourth, the 5th one made it to the parting stage. It was crude, and rough… but it was even and it was beautiful. I wanted to make more, so I did… I bought a better lathe, learned new techniques, used better wood. They got better, and that was only because my friends and family supported me and bought from my, at the time, a new Etsy shop. Honestly, if you are in possession of a wand between No.s 002-050. you did more than you will ever know to help me become a Wandmaker. Thank-you all. You didn’t just buy art, you’ve bought my Dremel, my festival tent, my business cards, my sandpaper and exotic woods which I’ve since become addicted to. Over the last 8 years I’ve polished my craft and can finally bring art that I am proud to share with everyone.

There are a lot of very talented wand makers out there, so to stand out in a narrow field, I focused on the uniqueness of each piece, my goal was to be the most versatile artist in my field. I worked with Exotic woods from all over the planet, I worked with different materials, leather, metal, semi-precious stones, antler and bone, cord, paint, gold leaf, pyrography, resin, washi paper. I wanted to carve new forms and shapes. I wanted to honor various cultures, eras, and styles from every continent. There is so much beauty in the world, that I want to drink it all and show it to everybody. I strive to bring my patrons the most unique wands in the world. If you wanted to own only one wand, I can name you 3 or 4 other craftsmen that you would be lucky to say you possessed a wand by, true artists. But if you’re looking for unique, and unconventional, I’ll be your Huckleberry. I can turn your vision into your personal custom wand, I can work Carte Blanche off of a few descriptive words from you, I can create something on an unexpected theme. What I Can’t do is plagiarize another artist’s work, I can do an Homage in their style, but I won’t copy another’s work. besides, those are someone else’s wand… don’t you deserve YOUR own Magic Wand?