How to make a glowing wooden charm

In fantasy and urban fantasy we often see mages, wizards, and all manner of magic-users casting protective wards or investing energy in amulets, talismans, and charmed objects. Either by description in novels or depicted on screen, you often see a brand burning over a doorway to prevent evil from entering, or a symbol glowing over the mantle to instill good fortune. It's such wonderful imagery that I wanted to find a way to recreate that idea with more mundane methods. One such way would be to use electronics, but I thought glow-in-the-dark paint might work even better, be simpler, and be low-maintenance. Here's how I transformed a simple wooden plaque into a charm of good luck, protection, etc. that glows with just a hint of magic.

Materials
-Wood plaque
-Wood stain
-Epoxy spray
-Art N Glow paint

Tools
-Pencil
-Sandpaper
-Wood-burner
-Large brush for stain
-Small paintbrush for paint

Inspirations

 Angel wards in Supernatural

Wards in The Magicians TV series

1. Gather the materials
Most of these materials are easy to find. Pre-cut wood plaques and wood-burner can be found at most large craft stores, and you can find wood stain, epoxy spray, etc. at a hardware store. But probably the key material here is finding an excellent glow-in-the-dark paint that dries clear. You can find basic glow-in-the-dark paint at any craft store, but the quality is not too good and you can only find it in that vague green color. I liked the Art N Glow neutral dark blue for this project, which worked well, dried clear, is non-toxic and had an interested color. I ordered it through Amazon, and it was well worth the wait. The brand also comes in a range of other colors, and a 1oz container is plenty to work with.

2. Find a design
There are lots of protective symbols and sigils that can be used, it really just boils down to what you designs or origins you prefer. There are plenty of symbols that can be sourced from all over the ancient world. Some of these include a pentacle (Greek/Babylonian/Wiccan), triquetra (Celtic), hamsa (Mesopotamian), solar cross (multiple sources), bindrunes (Norse), seal of Solomon (Judeo-Christian), etc. For this project I chose to a variation of an old Norse/Icelandic stave called the vegvisir, which is meant to protect the bearer from bad weather and from getting lost.

3. Prep and sketch the design
First prepare the plaque. Sand away any roughness with progressively finer grits. The smoother the plaque is the easier it will be to burn and to stain.

There's probably a better way to do this, but I ended up sketching the design with pencil onto the surface the plaque. Pencil isn't perfect, it's actually kind of difficult to erase afterwards so perhaps chalk would be better.

4. Burn
Next, fire up the wood-burner and start executing the design. I just used the basic point, but a bullet point would probably be just as well. With this pinewood plaque it can get a little difficult working in the closer grains, but the design is not too difficult to burn.

5. Stain
Using a wood stain of your choice, paint the plaque, let sit for a minute or two, and then wipe away the excess stain. Take extra care to wipe away any excess stain that may be trapped in the grooves of the design. Depending on the stain, you might need to apply multiple layers. Another method other than using a stain would be using something like Danish oil, which adds a bit of color to the wood while sealing it.

6. Paint
Next paint over the wood-burned lines with the glow-in-the-dark paint. I added enough to about half-fill the grooves. Let dry.

7. Finishing touches
Finally, spray the plaque with the clear coat enamel to seal the paint and stain. To "charge" the glow of the paint leave it in a sunny place or under a blacklight. Unfortunately I was unable to get a good picture of the glow (dark blue in darkness is not great contrast), but in person it's great and looks like a spell at work in the dark.