Owl perch and wand holder

This isn't the sort of thing that I normally post about, but I have historically shown a few crafty things I've made, so I thought I'd show this.

 



My daughter is a huge Harry Potter fan (ok, my wife and I are too) and last year we went to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios Florida. She came home with a ton of merchandise. I immediately started thinking about neat ways to display some of it, rather than just shoving it in her closet. It took about a year, but this year for her birthday I finally made her this combination owl perch and wand holder. I wanted it to look like something that might be standard issue in a Hogwarts dormitory, so I stained it red and added a gold medallion and G for Gryffindor. My initial plans called for much more distressing and even fake owl poop to really make it look old and worn. But for time's sake, and making sure it would be something that a little girl would like, I kept the final one nice and clean. Also, the little ramikan was just something I put on there for the picture. I did want to have a worn clay dish or something either filled with birdseed or little mouse bones, for the owl to nibble on, but again, budget and time won out.