Sometimes I feel I am a hapless sort of bastard, wasting my time (for example) on using spare moments in the woodshop to turn out "magic wands" (something like the Harry Potter ones) on the lathe, then wasting more time on working over and working over what I hope to be scintillating paint schemes to finish them: working in a genre of art that does not exist--the magic wand. It's true there are some other artists making these things (check out Etsy), yet all of these people seem pretty much as hapless as I, doing something that is basically unrecognizable.
People know what to do with oil paintings and Hummel figurines and giant steel sculptures, but what does one do with a "magic wand" conceived of and made as fine art, a sculptural object, something meant to be "appreciated" like any other work of art?
A friend of mine who is a very good artist who does commercially successful work of the highest quality told me I need to make fancy display cases for these wands, and then they would sell. That's probably excellent advice, and I would enjoy making such things almost as much as the wands themselves--but there's the matter of making the time to do that, so meanwhile I just present the wands with the simple display option of a wood stand to hold them.
I have an online shop, Art by Raber, at Etsy, a great site where you can buy and sell all sorts of wonderful hand-made stuff such as jewelry, clothing, fine art, you name it. This wand and several other items are available for sale there.
