Time for more Harry Potter Christmas goodies! Next on our list, John and I made some fun Quidditch brooms for the tree:
And here's one hanging:
This project is easiest if you have a Dremel and belt sander, but don't worry; I'll include some work-arounds for those of you without power tools!
You'll also need some twigs from the yard, metal foil tape, wire, and one of these spriggy wreaths from the craft store for the broom bristles:
(You could also use pine needles.)
John and I made these so fast I'm afraid I don't have any other process pics (ack!) - but I'll give you a quick walk-through, along with lots of finished shots.
- Remove the bark from your twigs using a belt sander, and shape one end to a slightly angled point.
You could also do this by hand with regular sand paper or a palm sander. Or failing that, make your own twigs from clay!
- Use hot glue to attach the bristles around the other end of the twig, overlapping it by about an inch.
- Cut bands of metal foil tape, and wrap the top edge of the bristles. You can also use copper foil or metallic curling ribbon, secured with a dab of hot glue. We used all three, so we'd have brooms in silver, copper, and gold.
- Trim the broom bristles to your liking, slightly tapering so the ones in the middle are longest.
- Drill a small hole through the bristles & twig with your Dremel, thread some wire through, and bend to form the foot rests. There are several different broom styles out there, so you can form them in a U shape, or keep them flat, like this:
You can also mix up the band styles, going with a double wrap, or just one thick band:
The thicker bands tend to crumple more, though, so I'd advise sticking to skinny ones for a more realistic metal look. (Wrap them several times to build up thickness & keep them from wrinkling as much.)
If you don't have a Dremel, you can wrap the wire like we did on the silver one up there. In fact, if you wrap the wire around enough times, you can skip the metal foil tape all together!
To hang your brooms, use your Dremel again to drill a small hole through the twig right above the bristles' edge. Thread a head pin through, and bend the top of the pin into a loop. (If you enlarge the pics above you can juuust see the loops John made. He used copper pins so they'd really blend in.)
If you don't have a Dremel, glue on an O-ring for a hanger, or just wrap more wire around the handle to form a loop.
Use a short wire hanger for your brooms, and hang them on the very tip of your branches so they can "float" convincingly:
Ta-da!
That's next to my miniature caged Monster Book of Monsters (an amazing gift from a reader, more pics here), and you can also see Luna's glasses in the background.
I am having so much fun decorating this tree, you guys.
And here's our smallest broom next to a snitch for scale:
I want to make at least a dozen more brooms now, but John and I have so many ornament ideas our little tree is already getting pretty crammed! I guess we'll just keep on making stuff, and see how much we can get done this week before we leave. :D
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