Spock's Pickled Brain

This is basically a spinoff of the Bowtruckle tutorial by Crafting Doctor , except with more variety in the greenery. Although we only have one example of bowtruckles in the films, it makes sense to me that there would different varieties that would camouflage themselves to certain tree species. Compared to the illustration on the Harry Potter Wiki: Materials -Floral wire -Floral tape -Pipe cleaners (aka chenille pipe stems) -Fake flowers and leaves Tools -Wire cutters -Scissors -Permanent marker -Superglue 1. Gather the materials All of these materials can be bought at larger craft stores, mostly from the floral section. You can also salvage faux leaves, flowers, and berries from thrift stores, which often have some old florals with the baskets and display pieces. 2. Cut stems The cutting of the wire pieces for the body, arms, and legs do not need to be very precise. To make a bowtruckle that is about the size seen in the films, the body is about f...

Gillywater Like most drinks mentioned in Harry Potter, many people have developed their own versions of the Gillywater. Starbat made this version, which definitely hits you in the teeth. The cucumber vodka and coconut rum meld two delicate flavors, and the gin adds some herbal edge. Hopefully Professor McGonagall would approve. 0.75oz cucumber vodka 0.75oz coconut rum 1.5oz gin Thinly sliced cucumbers Combine cucumber vodka, coconut vodka, and gin in a shaker with ice. Strain out ice and pour over sliced cucumbers in a old-fashioned glass. If you want to get fancy, serve with ice made in a sphere mold. Draught of Living Death Although this potion won't send you into a deathless slumber, it is certainly a cool and powerful libation. This drink was invented by Starbat, it's main herbal notes consisting of subtle damiana, calming lavender, and refreshing mint. The smoothness of the gold tequila deepens each of these flavors and gives the drink it's tr...

In the movie Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them from the Harry Potter legacy, one of the titular fantastic beasts is an “Occamy,” a beautiful blue-green feathered serpent creature that grows or shrinks to fit its environment. While I can’t make a prop that does that (unless I want to get one of those weird growing sponge dinosaur things), I can (possibly) make a cute, poseable version of said bird snake. This has certainly been done before, with many different materials, and with varying degrees of similarity to the original depiction. Here's my interpretation: Versus some depictions in the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them film: As ever, I decided to take some artistic license with the creature (but not too much), and I ended up it out of: -Foam (a seat cushion from Jo-Ann’s, about an inch thick) -Floral Wire (also from Jo-Ann’s, mine was fabric-wrapped, but it doesn’t have to be) -Wooden Bead (a round one with a hole through the middle, about a...

Although this fantastic bird has yet to make it to the big screen, I think this precursor for the golden snitch deserves to be made real. This extremely rare, very cute bird is mentioned in the textbook Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and Quidditch Through the Ages , described as a round, fat gold-feathered bird with red jewel eyes and incredible speed and agility. Based on this, I've created my own version of a snidget, which I meant to be hung as a holiday ornament, but could be modified to pin to a costume. I drew inspiration for this project from depictions below. Going clockwise starting with the upper left, there's the drawing from the original Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them book released in 2001 (unknown illustrator), how it appears in the video game Harry Potter: Quidditch World Cup (2003), concept art by Emmanuel Orquendo (2015) , and the illustration by Olivia Lomenech Gill in the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them Illustrated Editio...