This is going to be the most ridiculous thing you’ve ever read, because I probably could have done this another way, but I was bound and determined to make the staff my own way.
Starting out, I tried to find as many references to Loki’s glowstick of destiny staff as I could, but as the Avengers movie wasn’t out on DVD at the time, I had to find what I could on the internet. Once I had some decent pictures, I drew out some sketches of the size and what I thought it looked like from the screencaps and got to work.
Here are some of the things I had to buy for this project:
- 3’ dowel (slightly bowed)
- 1’ 2x4 block of soft wood (from craft store)
- an egg sized item (I got an egg sized wood piece)
- resin mold (to make the mold from the egg piece)
- resin (to put in the mold!)
- resin coloring (blue)
- gold spraypaint
- wires
- press switch
- large blue LED light
- TIME AND PATIENCE (okay so I didn’t buy that…)
I have to say that I couldn’t have made this thing without my brother, because he did all the electronic work and he was a saint for putting up with me going to his house to use his drills and such while making this.
The first thing I did was sketch on the 2x4 block the size and shape of the top of the staff. I then cut that piece out and used a dremel to carve out the piece itself into the shape I wanted. This took about 2 days of going to my brother’s basement to breathe in copious amounts of sawdust! Once the top part was finished, I shaped the egg down (since it was wood and easily shaped) to fit into the space at the top of the staff.
Once that was done, we made a mold with the egg that we let sit overnight so it would set properly. I believe I waited a week since I just didn’t have the time to make the cast at the time. Once we had the mold done, I mixed up the resin (which was an absolute crazytown to figure out; seriously, the ratios of catalyst; what the hell) with the blue dye to match the kind of color the stone has in the movie.
The stone turned out much better than expected. It had bubbling on one side that traveled upward, and I realized by looking at movie stills that the stone was not perfect and had metal in it which looked like it attached to the staff itself. Hard to tell for sure, but it was definitely imperfect, so after sanding the resin cast and buffing it, I painted on silver and black to give it a different kind of look.
Once the stone was finished, my brother and I set to work on how to light it up. We were going to go with a proximity magnet switch, but that seemed a bit awkward, so we settled on a switch in the very bottom of the staff that I could tap on my toe to turn the light on and off.
I ground down the staff on one end and my brother drilled a hole in the top piece to attach them with wood glue and it worked perfectly. Next we drilled holes. We drilled one under the space where the stone went, for the LED to fit in under it; we drilled another behind that and then a crevice down the side of the dowel for the wires; and then a large hole in the bottom of the dowel to fit in the batteries and the switch. Getting the LED to fit down into the hole with the extra length of wires was a pain, but it worked. I then covered the wire and holes in the obvious areas with wood putty and let it dry overnight before sanding it smooth.
Before fully installing the stone, I had to paint the staff, so I laid down newspaper and sprayed the crap out of it with gold spray paint. Now, this in particular was the reason I wanted to use wood. I wasn’t sure how well spray paint would hold on PVC pipe, and I really liked the texture the gold took once it was on the wood!
We very carefully used a small dremel head to clear out a space on the bottom of the stone to give the LED more room, and then glued it down into the spot where it belonged. It worked like a charm.
I then painted the area around the stone black to make it stand out more, then the glue on and around it silver so it would look and feel like it was solidly attached. I also sealed the stone with glossy Mod Podge, and the staff itself with matte Mod Podge so that if it rained, it wouldn’t be harmed.
I think it was about a week or so of work spread out over the course of a month, mostly because I could only go to my brother’s place on my days off. I really enjoyed making the staff. My favorite had to be using the dremel to shape the top of the staff because it taught me basically how to use the dremel better, and I found that I really enjoyed making a 3D piece with it.
I hope this post doesn’t seem to scatter brained, and might be a help if you’re making one of your own :)
