Prop Making - Staff

We were tasked with recreating a prop from a movie or t.v. show for 3D design. I decided to craft a magic staff from an anime I enjoy.

This is the magic staff I would make.

After figuring out what I was going to make I had to decide what materials to make the project out of. I went with Wood and insulation foam. I also used wood filler, acrylic paint and permanent bonding agent.

What drew me to make this project was the magic crystals. In the beginning I considered making another characters wand, but that felt to small of a project. Then I considered his wand but ran into the issue most anime refuses to address, gravity. The orb at the top of the characters staff both glowed and flowed, and while I had found other crafters had found ways around this gravity issue; adding fairy lights and rods into the orb. I wanted to make as many parts by hand as possible so I decided to create his Teachers Wand instead, allowing me the challenge of crafting the very interestingly shaped top of her staff.

After much trial and error, specifically with the foam it was complete. Made to my height.

*tip: any aerosol spray will eat the purple insulation foam, use wood filler to patch up any melted spots and apply at least 2 layers of acrylic paint before even CONSIDERING spraying it.