I’m thinking of making someone (who is a massive harry Potter nerd) a custom wand for a gift - I sort of want to make it ‘authentic’ in the sense that it will be made from a specific named timber (I actually have some Elder in stock, but may use Hazel or something else) - and I want it to contain something within the handle that sounds like a magical object.
Best I can come up with so far is ‘Mermaid’s Purse String’ - which would be one of the thread-like structures from a Mermaid’s Purse (Shark/Ray egg case)
So… what other things are there in our non-magical world that sound magical enough to be included within a wand? (they sort of have to be small enough to use that way too)
Bismuth crystals are pretty cool and magical looking. The old Alchemical name was tectum argenti which sounds half-way to a Harry Potter type spell already!
If you’re just going to make a core, instead having something visual I mean, there’s Medusa’s Head, Baby’s Breath, Baby’s Tears, Dragon plant and Ghost peppers. Or step outside of canon and have a multi-core wand and include bits of several different things. [del]Voldemort[/del] He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named pushed the boundaries of magic further than any wizard before him. He did Great Things, terrible things, but Great.
How about a devil’s finger? They have the added bonus of looking like something straight out of Lovecraft…
You could also hope to get lucky and find some star jelly. Or cast something from a mix of resin and micrometeorites (I think it was you who had the micrometeorite hunting instructions on his website, right?). I mean, a core made from literal fallen stars? Or maybe get some moon dust…
Last one (promise), but here’s a page of 70 weird mushroom names. How about funeral bell? Witches’ butter? Tiger’s eye (or you could also go for the gemstone with the same name)? Vampire’s bane? Or, for the more Hufflepuff-oriented, how about the snaketongue truffleclub?
Well, the cores of the wands in the books are all from a magical creature, not necessarily a magical thing. Dragon’s heartstrings, unicorn tail and phoenix feather. To be a bit more canon, your best bet would be the hair of some kind of mythical creature.
Gryffon’s Mane is the first thing that pops into my head.
If you want to get REAL awesome/technical/canon, you could create the want with some kind of cut in the wood, make whatever is inside of the wood (or just paint it) black, and have it be from Thestral bone.
How about a Death’s-Head Sphinx. Maybe you couldn’t get a specimen of that, but the Pandora Sphinx is from eastern North America and would be easier to get hold of.
I’m in the UK, so the Death’s Head is probably more likely found here - it’s mostly an immigrant - supposedly incapable of overwintering here (although I know of specific exceptions from a friend who has observed adults emerging from pupae in very sheltered microclimates)
Not a mythical creature, but the hellgrammite sounds like it should be. The adult Dobsonfly (aka “flying hellgrammite”) looks even scarier. Apparently not in the UK though.
