Abracadabra

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 13/04/2019 (2664 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

On Sunday, Jessica Wasylyk will be a featured vendor at Crafted by Me, a free-to-the-public, pop-up event that runs from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at St. Norbert Community Centre, 3450 Pembina Hwy.

One of the stipulations on the application form Wasylyk submitted in February was that the market’s organizer, Kelly Sernowski, “reserves the right to limit duplication of crafts” to ensure there’s ample variety among the 80-plus dealers expected to be in attendance.

Er, let’s just say duplication was never going to be a problem where Wasylyk, owner-operator of online entity Protego Wand Shoppe, was concerned.

“There’s a space on the form where you’re asked to describe your craft,” Sernowski says when reached by phone. “In her section Jessica wrote, ‘I make Harry Potter-style wands,’ and I was like, wands? How utterly fascinating. I get a ton of applications for baking and jewelry, all of which are lovely because everybody puts their own, unique spin on what they’re doing. But I can safely say I’ve never received an application listing wands as a person’s specialty, before.”

Seated in a Regent Avenue coffee shop, Wasylyk, 29, guesses she was 10 years old when one of her cousins forced the first Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, into her hands, telling her, “You have to read this.” At the time, she wasn’t a big fan of fantasy novels, far from it. So imagine her surprise when she begrudgingly flipped to the first page, which begins, “Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much,” and was immediately smitten.

“I read that first book in a single sitting, five hours straight, and have been a major Potter-head ever since,” she says, flashing a tattoo of the Deathly Hallows symbol from the series’ seventh and final installment that she had done just above her right wrist.

OK, it’s one thing to adore all-things-Harry Potter, but something else entirely to launch a home-based biz that turns out wooden wands like those wielded by characters from J.K. Rowling’s books. Not surprisingly, how that got started is a bit of a story in itself.

Years ago, Wasylyk learned about www.pottermore.com, an exhaustive website that bills itself as “the official entertainment and news channel for the Wizarding World.” In addition to sections touching on international Harry Potter book clubs and up-to-the-minute news associated with the much beloved franchise (on June 13, Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure opens at Universal Orlando Resort), the website also contains a seven-part questionnaire — “the wand ceremony” it’s called — you can take to determine the length and style of wand perfectly suited to you.

One problem: when you’re all done, the website only displays an image of your wand, based on your responses to questions such as what do you fear most in life and what’s your strongest character trait. If you want an actual physical specimen, you have to fashion it yourself, which is precisely what Wasylyk did.

“It’s not like I couldn’t have bought a Harry Potter wand if I’d wanted to,” she continues. “I’ve seen them for sale before, except those ones are mass-produced and identical to one another. In the books it always says the wand chooses its owner, not the other way around, so that’s what I wanted, a wand that was designed for me and me only.” (If you’re curious, and are fluent in Potter-speak, her wand is made of Rowan wood, is a shade over 30 centimetres long, features a Phoenix feather core and is “slightly yielding” in terms of flexibility.)

Last October, Wasylyk attended Central Canada Comic Con at the convention centre, posing as “a proud Hufflepuff.” Dozens of people there commented on her wand, asking her where she had purchased it. Later that week she brought it to the office for Halloween. Her co-workers were equally impressed, telling her she should go into the wand business. Presto, change-o, in November she heeded their advice and launched her online store (https://protegowandshoppe.wixsite.com/protegowandshoppe).

“Obviously I’m marketing them to Harry Potter fans but anyone who has a love of magic in general — plus kids, lots and lots of kids — are drawn to them, too,” she says, adding she knew “zero, zilch” about woodworking when she began her project with her husband’s old whittling knife as her lone tool, but has since learned how to operate a variety of devices, including a drill press, belt sander and lathe.

“I’ve received custom orders from people who, like me, took the wand test online and wanted a copy of their wand, but mostly I just make ones that pop into my brain when I’m out walking the dogs or whatever. I have a sketchpad I jot ideas down on, so I don’t forget what it was I thinking about, or how I want a certain handle to look, when it’s time to get down to business.”

Wasylyk works with a few types of wood, basswood and balsam being her favourites. She does the majority of her carving at the family cottage before painting each wand individually and adding accents such as gemstones or marbles in the comfort of her Lorette home, while watching TV or listening to music. And while she dreams about opening a physical location of her own one day, perhaps something mimicking Ollivanders, the fictional shop where Harry Potter snagged his first wand, for now she’s content peddling her wares on a consignment basis at a pair of stores in Kildonan Place (Sweet C Bakery and, starting in May, Gizmos Galaxy).

As for the million dollar question — do her wands work? — well, that’s entirely up to the person waving it around, she says with a wink.

“What I tell customers is if they have even a little bit of imagination, then yes, they work just fine.”

david.sanderson@freepress.mb.ca