Q&A for How to Make a Harry Potter Wand

Yes. A lot of people make wands from sticks. You should sand it to get rid of the rough edges, though.

According to the official Pottermore website, wands are typically between 8 and 12 inches long. Try to make your wand somewhere around that length. Remember, you can always cut the stick down if it is too long.

Hollow the stick/dowel with a dremel or knife, place inside your choice of core (feather, hair, etc.) and seal it with hot glue or epoxy. If you are using the paper method, add in your core during or before the gluing the two edges together. See the article for more details.

You may use normal glue, but it will not dry as quickly or hold as long.

Watercolors are generally lighter-colored paint, so the color may not show up. Acrylics would be better.

You can glue multiple sheets together to increase sturdiness.

If you're decorating, it looks much better putting the hot glue on before painting.

Super glue may be an acceptable substitute.

You can skip any of the steps you don't want to do, sanding, hot gluing, etc. Just buy the dowel from the craft store and decorate it however you like.

Anything long. Pencils work well.

Sure, whatever you like! If you do that, you can personalize it, because that makes it unique.

Watercolor paints are really light and won't really show up. It's best to use acrylics.

If you want, but it might be more difficult.

You could use normal glue, but it might take a bit longer to dry out. You can also use superglue.

You could use ordinary liquid glue, although it will take longer to dry. Superglue would be a great substitute, too.

You can find them at some general stores, or home improvement stores like Home Depot or Lowe's.

In the tutorial, the string is being used to create a fake dragon heartstring, which is one of the most common wand core types in the Harry Potter universe. You do not have to use the string -- for a phoenix feather core, a craft feather will work, and tinsel is a great stand-in for unicorn hair. Go to the Pottermore website if you would like to learn more about types of wand cores. Whatever you choose to use, put it into the center of your wand before you roll it up.

A stick and a nail file would be fine, but craft glue is only good gluing on embellishments, so the best alternatives would be clay or wire.

You can use clear acrylic varnish, clear acrylic enamel, hairspray, or clear nail polish.

It is a smooth wooden stick that comes in different lengths and widths.

Not really. The poster paint might not stay on the dried hot glue. It would work if you mixed it with a bit of Mod Podge, though. It just wouldn't dry as fast.

No, the cardboard is too thin and will flap around. Plus, the glue will be likely too heavy for the towel roll to support and it will droop.

I would suggest acrylic paint.

Cut cardboard into equal, long, thin strips. Glue them together back to back. Then paint the wand.

Use school glue, but it won't dry as fast. Super glue also works as a substitute.

You likely can't put anything inside a wooden dowel as it would be hard to get something into it. Also, you don't really even see the wand core or anything else inside a wand. That said, if you really want to try and you can carefully drill a hole in the wand, then it would be your choice.

Stage magicians use sleight-of-hand and misdirection to make it appear as though things are done by "magic", but it's all just illusions and prepared tricks. As to whether or not magic is truly real, there is no scientific evidence to back this up, but many believe in the power of casting spells, incantations and rituals.

You don't have to, the regular glue will make the paper stiffer once dry. If you use a metallic pipe cleaner or chopstick as your core, that will also help stabilize it.

A traditional broomstick handle would be too thick.

You could try using something else entirely, like string, but there isn't another type of glue that would work.