sleepy
baghdaelf, so I decided to go wand shopping. The shopping cart set-up at Pagan Hearth still says 'Lignum Vitae,' which isn't the rosewood want I wanted, so I looked elsewhere.I discovered that elsewhere, wands made of rosewood or ebony cost nearly twice as much. :P Still, I was able to find a wand at The Wand Shop that sold for two dollars less than the asking price, and that was the best bargain I could find, so I took it. Even the Wand Shop, though, is heavy on the Potter-themed merchandise.
I have to say, I deplore the influence that Potterdom has had on wandmakers. Many of them are now selling Potteresque wands, which have little compartments inside, containing supposedly magical items, like a hair from a unicorn's mane or some other such nonsense. The reason I bought my wand where I did was because the wands they sold were handmade limited editions, all cut from one piece of wood. I figured those were less likely to be influenced by the Harry Potter craze. They were not advertised as Wizarding World wands, so I have hope. At least there are no crystals on them. I'm a rabid traditionalist when it comes to that.
Still, the Potter influence makes it a bit hard to find the real wands among all of those supposedly made by Ollivander. You think you're going into a nice, pagan shop, and then you see all the little Potterisms in the links.
*sigh* I love the Harry Potter books, but I do wish there was less copycat merchandise floating about.
