Making wands

Apology: there are no pictures of the hazel actually growing.

A friend had asked me to make two wands. I went to the woods and realised I was in the wrong place if I wanted to find the coppiced hazel that I remembered. I'd have to walk quite a long way. Instead, I walked in the opposite direction. On an impulse, and found a hazel clump who said she was happy for me to take a stem. This was generous of her as I did not have the right tool with me and the operation was somewhat messy.

She offered up a message to the women who will receive these wands:

The Hazel says that it teaches us the value of craft- craft in all the ways you might understand it. Craft is creative and resilient, arising from being rooted in a particular place. Craft involves work as well as imagination, practise and skill as well as moments of intuition and insight. Craft reminds you of the value of home and the past at the same time as you generate forth innovation for the future. Craft is embodied and of the earth. Craft can be a revealing, a concealing, a sculpting and shaping, a chiselling away of excess, and an integrating of differences. Craft teaches you to consider what you have, what you need, and what you don't need- and to acknowledge that it takes work to reach the desired outcome. Craft dwells too in the uncanny (“craftiness”) and the subversive. Watch out for that: it is alluring, You can be drawn to too much subversion. That is where the value of rootedness, homeliness, and humility come in. Craft is never arrogant: it knows that perfect means finished and finished means dead. Holding fast to a certain naturalness of expression will serve you well.The Hazel says that it teaches us the value of craft- craft in all the ways you might understand it. Craft is creative and resilient, arising from being rooted in a particular place. Craft involves work as well as imagination, practise and skill as well as moments of intuition and insight. Craft reminds you of the value of home and the past at the same time as you generate forth innovation for the future. Craft is embodied and of the earth. Craft can be a revealing, a concealing, a sculpting and shaping, a chiselling away of excess, and an integrating of differences. Craft teaches you to consider what you have, what you need, and what you don't need- and to acknowledge that it takes work to reach the desired outcome. Craft dwells too in the uncanny (“craftiness”) and the subversive. Watch out for that: it is alluring, You can be drawn to too much subversion. That is where the value of rootedness, homeliness, and humility come in. Craft is never arrogant: it knows that perfect means finished and finished means dead. Holding fast to a certain naturalness of expression will serve you well.

I took the stem to Kairos and sat with him for a while. (You can see the cut hazel at the right hand base of the oak.)

He added to the message:

Kairos says that just as you see the figure to be shaped from the raw and uncarved block of stone or wood, so you see in life, out of the unformed matter of the future and the as-yet-to-become, the shape that is beautiful, true and good. And in the same way, out of the rush of time, you see a moment that is propitious. And those are the moments in which you live your life to the utmost. Life and time offer potentialities and when you have honed your vision such that you see the propitious moment, and the beautiful, true, and good shape or action, then you can live with the wisdom of trees. When the sun strikes a leaf, he says he experiences that moment. When sweet water seeps through his roots, when the spring air breathes its revitalising spirit back into him, then he knows that life is ready to be shaped into the form of oak.

I took the hazel home and into the garden where I sat with my little trees while I peeled off the bark, shaped the wands, and sanded the wood. Inside, I tied a hazelnut and a feather to each wand, after massaging into the wood almond oil that had been absorbing petals from my red. red rose for a year (it smells divine).

It was funny as the one with the blackbird feather knew exactly what shape it wanted to be - I hadn't intended to make it pointed. The one with the jay kept changing its mind, and settled on a taper at each end.

This was a pleasant task and I felt connected to the trees.