Closed Experimental Crafting

[Ainsley Lynch]

Emmett's backyard workshop had over the past year gone from an entirely strange environment, to a place Ainsley felt totally at home. Though she knew she was barely beginning to scratch the surface of the wealth of information there was to know about wandmaking, it was thrilling to dig into a brand new branch of magic she had never studied before, and she was starting to feel familiar with at least the basics of the craft. Which components did what, how to properly handle the cores, how to carve wood properly. The nicks and splinters and scrapes on her hands had given way to woodworking calluses, clumsily splintered wood replaced by smooth carved designs. It was work Ainsley was proud to do, and she found herself loving every second.

Today was a very special project. She had known from the second she began studying wandmaking that she would wind up crafting herself a new wand from scratch, and one thought from her first conversation on the subject with Emmett had stuck this entire time. Though she knew it wasn't entirely practical and she would certainly wind up defaulting to her old wand on a day to day basis, Ainsley had been completely unable to let go of the idea of making herself a magic staff, an idea that thankfully Emmett had been agreeable to help her with. It had taken a while to decide upon the makeup of the staff and source enough wood, but the day had finally come to start working on it. As fond as Ainsley was of the wand that had chosen her so long ago, it felt silly to make a staff with exactly the same properties, when there was potential for experimentation. She wasn't the same person she had been ten years ago when her pine and fwooper wand had chosen her, and after a lot of research with Emmett's help, she had developed the exact make she felt suited her for a new staff. Walnut wood, and a Phoenix tail feather core. Versatile, creative, dependable. It sounded perfect. She had needed to order quite a lot of walnut, to make a staff that would be appropriately tall to suit her own stature, and she now laid the branch on the bench, taking up easily the space of nearly a dozen wands. "So... where should we start?" Ainsley asked her mentor, glancing down slightly at Emmett. Though her initial impression of him as a coworker had been scratchy and intimidating, Ainsley had become fond of working on projects like this with Emmett. She admired his dedication and wealth of knowledge, and looked forward to taking on this project together.

 

[Emmett Lancaster]

Emmett never had any intention of spending more time with any of his colleagues than was absolutely necessary during work hours, yet Ainsley had proven to be more than just another fleeting assistant getting in his way and grating on his nerves. A legitimate passion for wandlore was refreshing to come across, and though he didn't think he could refer to her as a friend, nor would he be eager to spend time with her outside of their passion projects, her company was fine and she was as reasonably close as most people could get. He was happy to share his interests with someone else for a change, without it seeming like a waste of breath.

The man paced around the bench Ainsley had set her walnut branch on, his arms partially folded and a hand under his chin. His ever-present bowtruckle had been kept away from the workshed given that, while typically complacent with wands that have been carved already, may not have sat settled while they worked on a branch. "We'll work on the body first, whittle away some of these notches - unless you want to keep them. Did you have a design in mind?" He asked, stepping away to pick up a few shorter pieces of wood he'd set aside. "I carved out some handle shapes for grip, so you can get a feel for what's comfortable before you commit." Smooth may have worked just fine, though without much experience in the stave department, he couldn't be sure if other grooves and indents were more comfortable. Wand handles were a subject Emmett found himself feeling more picky about the longer he worked with them.​

 

[Ainsley Lynch]

Ainsley nodded, listening to Emmett's guidance seriously. Though she was growing more confident in her abilities, working on this scale was out of her comfort zone, and she wanted to make sure she was doing things right. "I was thinking of leaving some of the notches, to keep a bit of the organic shape. Hang on." Ainsley paused and fumbled through her robes, checking several of the spare pockets she had sewn into the garment before finally tracking down what she was looking for. "Here, I drew a few different designs I like, but I think... something like this?" Ainsley smoothed out the parchment and laid it on the bench, showing Emmett the carving designs she had drawn out. She looked up to see the handle prototypes he had made, smiling in excitement. "Oh, thank you!" Ainsley said, looking them over. It relieved her that Emmett shared her enthusiasm for this project, even if he didn't go about showing it in the same way. She picked up a couple of the handles, turning them over in her hands and testing the feel of the grip curiously.

 

[Emmett Lancaster]

Emmett had his own image of what the stave would look like in his head, and after looking over the drawings Ainsley handed him, he realised they didn't entirely fit what he'd envisioned. But it wasn't his staff, and while he wouldn't claim to know his colleague that well even now, he supposed it did suit her. It was less work, which he may have found to be a lazy shortcut if not for the style being so fitting. "This should work. You'll want to keep the base sanded down some, we can add a layer of shellac, otherwise you'll find yourself getting tripped up by loose wood splinters." He offered. He wasn't nearly as familiar with staves as he was with wands, but he could imagine how much of an annoyance it could be to get caught up in the fabric of clothes, and may well have been a contributing factor to wizards preferring wands, given how loose traditional robes had been. His point of reference mostly revolved around his grandmothers, whose smooth wood didn't pose the same risks. He laid out some of the carving tools to whittle it down, and glanced up at Ainsley. "Any you prefer?" He asked, gesturing toward the handles. "I'm thinking it might help to trial holding the staff before you focus on carving the grip. You need to get a feel for how high or low you want to hold it comfortably from." He suggested. Knowing roughly where to embed the core would no doubt help earlier in the process. The tail feather of all parts had been a solid choice, he thought, given the length of a staff.​

 

[Ainsley Lynch]

Ainsley listened to Emmett, nodding seriously. Woodworking was a skill that was completely new to her, and she found it the most challenging aspect of making wands by far. It was a fun challenge, there was no doubt about that, but she knew she had a lot left to learn, and paying attention to Emmett's instructions in that area would be crucial. "Sounds good." She said, filing the information away in her mind. It made sense that snagging would be a substantial risk with a staff, and a smooth texture would probably be nicer to hold for long periods of time. Sorting through the grips Emmett had provided, Ainsley tried a few before holding up one that fit to the contours of her hand nicely. "This feels good." She said, testing it at a few different angles. "Maybe a tiny bit too small? My hands are huge. But the shape is good." Ainsley added, before turning her attention to the staff itself. After holding the smoother wood of the grips it felt a lot clumsier in her hand, the grain scratching uncomfortably at her skin, but she tried out holding it at a few different points before settling on a zone that felt comfortable, a little lower than her shoulder. "Here is good, I think."

 

[Emmett Lancaster]

Emmett nodded, pleased that Ainsley had found a grip she liked. Measuring it to her hand wasn't something he'd had in mind with the test pieces, but the shape she'd chosen was simple enough to alter to fit her size. "That won't be a problem." He said, watching as she tested the length of the branch for where to position it. He raised his wand to the spot she liked, marking the length with a glowing strip of light, muttering an incantation all the while. "There. Let's get started." He said, settling into a stool beside the bench. He set the test grip to the side, easy enough for them to reference while they worked on the main branch, and handed one of the carving knives to his colleague. "What made you go with the walnut?" He asked conversationally. He didn't know her too well, though a wand spoke volumes about a person. When it came to wandmakers, it was even more interesting to see who they saw themselves as.​

 

[Ainsley Lynch]

Ainsley watched the way Emmett marked the wood, only moving her hand once she was sure the mark was set in place. She took a seat too and accepted the carving knife Emmett handed her, looking over the wood, suddenly afraid to start. This was her least favourite part of winemaking, the knowledge that any wrong cuts were ones she had to live with forever. She knew that with enough expertise even the most egregious mistake could be worked into part of a design, but that was expertise she just didn't have yet. She was distracted from her worries by Emmett's question, glancing up slightly at him, relieved to have something else to think about. "Oh, well... my wand is pine, which is tied to... creative uses of magic, you know, and I wanted something that would have... a similar feeling, but not be exactly the same. I'm really interested in creative magic and the way spells are designed, I didn't want to lose that, but it'd feel silly to just make a bigger version of my own wand. I'm not the same person I was when I was eleven, you know, it felt right to branch out a bit. I also... really like the look of walnut, and it lends itself well to carving. I knew I wanted to put designs all down the length, so I had to find a wood that was suited to that, and when I was researching I found all these books about Kashmiri walnut carving really inspiring. It seemed perfect." Ainsley smiled shyly, finally calmed enough by the distraction to actually put knife to wood and start working. "Plus, Walnut is supposed to be.... I don't like the word obedient, but... it does what you want it to, you know. I love my wand, but it won't cast silencing charms because of the core, and that can be really annoying. I don't believe all the rumours about fwooper feathers driving people mad, but they really hate silencing charms. I didn't want to deal with that all over again."