Sylvan Magic Staff (hand-made LARP prop, also OC)

(More photos and details below)

A fantasy druid magic staff I made a while ago. 5'5" total, foliage included. Made from white clay, curly willow, and some dead wood pieces I found in the forest.

In my fictional universe, it's supposed to be a talking rod, inhabited by the spirit of a zany dryad. I named her Yutak Tumatsh  Super proud of it, so I thought I'd share the details of its creation below.

💎 The gem is a polished rock crystal that can light up.

I made a hidden, detachable system underneath, so that pressing down on the crystal turns the light on and off. The batteries can be replaced when needed. It's also possible to change the light's hue by switching out the piece of felt cushioning the base of the crystal. It really gives off a nice glow in the dark.

🌱 Most of the staff is real wood.

The main staff body is a curly willow branch. The head branches are a mix of willow sticks and dead branches from the woods, that I attached to the (also wooden) head base. I then coated everything with clay and sculpted both sides.

Obviously the foliage is all plastic (gluing the leaves to the branches was a nightmare).

🌱 The front and back side of the head were hand-sculpted with clay.

It's supposed to look like the external roots to the "trees" growing on the head... I admit I'm not the best at giving clay the texture of actual tree bark, but hey, I didn't have any tool but my hands and a toothpick.

The twisted part under the neck is sculpted clay as well; the neck collar was made using dried shell-looking plants parts as a base (sliced poppy pods, maybe?)

🌱 The foot is made from the tip of a tree's broken root.

It was seemingly polished by rain, and its shape and looks were simply perfect.

After washing it and letting it dry out, I screwed it to the willow stick. I then reconstructed its broken parts and made a seamless transition using clay. It's the only part of the staff whose color is natural (only coffee-stained), and the rest was painted to match it.

📿 Details of the handle ornaments.

All cheap trinkets, beads and pieces of fabric I already had, and the Triskell is an earring I once got at a medieval fair.

I dyed the ribbon myself to get the exact shade of desaturated pink I wanted to match the flowers, but alas, the color faded over time.

💩 The one thing that failed prodigiously.

I initially wanted to be able to wear the staff sheathed on my back and draw it out quickly with one hand, like mages in FFXIV do. So I thought of a neodyne magnets system embbed into both the stick and a faux leather strap.

It worked well and looked super cool in early test tries, sitting nice and straight against my back even when walking around...

...However, once the staff was finished and loaded with the lamp and batteries, it was then too heavy to remain attached to the strap, it kept sliding off  Well then, if I ever to go to a medieval festival with it I'll use it as a walking stick.

🌟 Inspiration

I always liked tree-shaped staffs and wanted to craft my own IRL. The main inspirations were my two favorite rods from FFXIV that I use for my druid character (Ingrimm and the Madman's Whispering Rod), with a bit of Grandmother Willow for the face.

I indeed have a story project called Rúndawald, about a magical forest inhabited by all kinds of folkloric or magical people and beings.

One of them is a druid lady (not yet named, let's call her Unnamed Druid Lady or UDL ), who lives as a hermit deep in the woods and wields a semi-sentient, talking magic staff she made and enchanted herself:

UDL once found one of the Elder Trees cut down, with the dryad spirit that dwelled within it dying. She salvaged a core branch and used healing magic in an attempt to save the magical being.

But it was (almost) too late: while a tiny part of the dryad's wisdom and powers could live on, it was unable to grow into a full tree again, and all its personal memories were gone for good. Yet it didn't seem to mind it as it politely refused to be mercy-killed, seemingly content with just existing and watching life go by. So UDL crafted the branch into a full magic staff.

Ever since, Yutak has been a wise, yet sassy and wacky companion, like a funny sidekick to her more cynical wielder. Cheerful and carefree since her "rebirth", she has no problem being a wooden staff, as long as UDL regularly sticks her tip root into the garden ground for her to recharge (fertilizer is a big no-no though, since it makes her drunk).

Please no reposts, etc. Especially and since the design is 100% mine, no using for your DND projects, custom cards, or whatever. Unless you wanna get a DMCA up yo ass ofc.