Clay Perry: The Wizard Staff

I received an email from a customer asking about a wizard staff. We went over the details and I began the search. He wanted a staff six feet in length with a face on one side a name carved on the other. I went through the supply of wood I have on hand and discovered that I had nothing in stock that was quite long enough, so I began my search.

It was slated to be one of the hottest days of the year thus far, so I started early. I gassed up the kawasaki mule and headed out into the woods. I made my way toward a pond where I knew there was a good stand of trees that would fit the order. Once parked, I began walking in the direction of the suitable trees. When you're searching for trees in the woods you have to keep a sharp lookout for things that will kill you... I spotted a possible candidate and searched the area for snakes, I found a snake hole, and kept an eye on it as I worked. I took the tree back to the kawasaki and began cutting it into lengths, I got enough from it for the staff and a walking stick, along with enough limbs to begin making wands for an upcoming project I have in August.

I made my way back to the porch where I began the debarking process. Once the piece was ready, I treated it to keep it from splitting and set it aside... I then began work on a few other projects until it was ready to for carving...

During the carving portion of the job, I sent a few photos to the customer via cell phone and received a message back from him that everything looked good and "By the way.. can you get me another one?" So the next day I set off into the woods to retrieve another tree, providing more walking stick and wand material along with it...

Once the carving was completed, I finished the two pieces and set them aside to dry, then I went about mailing them off to the customer. Building a proper box to send two six foot wizard staffs safely across the country is no mean feat.. not to mention the adverse reaction walking into the post office with a huge package of that nature has on the employees that have to process it... I walked in with my assistant, me with the wizard staff box and two others, he with his arms full of several others boxes.. trust me you get lots of stink eyes from everybody around when you walk in loaded like that...

Once everything was received I began getting the report emails in. The wizard staffs went over great, I hope that the new owners get a chance to see this post so they can get a feel for where they came from. Several hours were spent deep in the woods of north Georgia picking through trees to find the right ones.. But in truth, that is my favorite part of doing this, spending those hours out in the woods searching. You know you're in the right place once you're pretty much lost but don't really care. Like any creative process, you get so involved in what you are doing, nothing else seems to matter, it is indeed the perfect therapy...