Windermere Wands: Meet the Wandmaker Bringing Joy to People with His Magical Creations
Portrait of Windermere Wand Founder, Deacon Ales. Portrait courtesy of the subject.
What happens when a talented woodworker who’s also a fan of the Wizarding World decides to start making custom wands? A real-life Ollivander, at your service.
“I've been called that before,” says Deacon Ales, founder and wandmaker at Windermere Wands. “That honors me…I really enjoy what I do, and I think I've found a creative little niche that not a lot of people enter into.”
He’s also one of the humblest Creators I’ve had the pleasure of speaking with. If you’ve ever seen a gorgeous, handcrafted wand come across your social media feeds, you might have seen a Windermere Wand:
Picture courtesy of Deacon Ales
But he wasn’t always a Harry Potter fan. “Growing up. I wasn't much into reading. There was really no reason for that other than laziness, but I could just never really get into things,” he explains. “I think I remember the first Harry Potter book coming out and being close to the same age as Harry…everyone around me was super excited. I started reading and I got to the point to where Hagrid kicks down the shack doors. Like ‘You're a wizard, Harry!’ It was like, ‘yeah, not for me.’ Which is so funny now.”
So how does a guy who’s not that into Harry Potter become a full-time wandmaker? It all started with a stick from his backyard and a friend’s Harry Potter-themed birthday party: “I dressed up, and I thought it'd be weird for me to go and not have a wand. By that time, I had seen all the movies…I just hadn't read the books. So, I made a wand and other people were like, ‘Hey, that's actually really cool.’”
Deacon’s first wand. Picture courtesy of Deacon Ales
After that, friends started asking him to make them wands, and after a coworker unexpectedly paid him to make a custom wand, his friends encouraged him to open an Etsy shop. “That was at the beginning of 2019. And it kind of exploded,” he shares.
“I said I would give myself three months, and just see how it was going…and decide from there if it was sustainable or not,” says Deacon.
It was. With over 100K followers on TikTok, and thousands more across other social platforms, Deacon has amassed an avid community of wand lovers all over the world, who not only come for his wands, but also the magical stories behind them. We’ll get to those in a second.
In the beginning he made his own designs, but a lot of the requests were people wanting their actual Pottermore wand, so he started creating the exact wands Pottermore would show. But he quickly realized there were only about three designs for every possible combination.
“I started to want to make a little bit more unique things,” he says.
I’m not surprised when he tells me he’s been an artist and painter his whole life, but how did he get the woodworking and metalworking skills to create the wands?
“My family owns a piano restoration company. And right out of high school, I started working there because I got fired at a skate shop for not showing up. It's a long story,” he says with a laugh.
He worked there for about five years doing a lot of the dirty jobs other people didn’t want, but says he finished them fast, so he was able to experiment with metal and wood on all the tools available in the shop. There were lots of mistakes, and lots of ruined handles. But in 2019 he started experimenting by adding different media together. While in Boston for LeakyCon, he visited some antique shops and found something incredible.
“I saw…this really cool, old parasol handle that had gold and pearl…that looks like it would be straight out of Fantastic Beasts. I bought it and I broke the umbrella that it was a part of, which was like…175 years old. Yeah, bad,” he says a bit sheepishly. “I feel way less bad now…people loved it…it was kind of a style I had been going for but not able to attain with my then skill level. So just experimenting with that, and lots of learning on the fly.”
I ask the impossible question. Does he have a favorite wand he’s created? Possibly.
“It is like picking your favorite child…You just can't say it out loud for fear of hurting their feelings…there's this purple heart wand with a gold handle and it's got a sheath. I just recently made it and posted it. That kind of sparked new love because I hadn't done anything like that before,” he shares. “I do have a couple, there's this one I made when I first got started that almost looks like a pirate sword, and it's got this metal guard…But I think they're all just so unique…it's hard to pick a favorite.”
The pirate sword wand. Picture courtesy of Deacon Ales
These gorgeous works of art clearly needed a backstory to go with them, so Deacon also started writing.
“I thought this needs more than just, ‘I made it out of wood and it has resin.’ I found that [the stories] gave a richness to the wands…whereas before, I was really struggling to think like, ‘what do I write in my Instagram caption? It was kind of feeling repetitive,” he admits. “So I started writing these stories, and they added…this immersive experience to where…you were hearing the story about it…in [the] context of the wizarding world and in other fantasy genres,” Deacons says.
“And then I made another wand that was only about like seven and a half inches long. It was for a…prominent…fancy hat maker…[and] it was this little thing that actually went in the hat…I was like, ‘I should write a story to not make it seem weird that I have this tiny wand.’ So it was kind of this like hidden wand story…And then I kind of got roped into having to do it every time because I like it; other people like it.”
A friend, client, and Patreon member was the first person who told him he should read them aloud because they were convinced people would love it. “And it took off big time,” he confirms.
If you haven’t heard one of his wand stories, here’s a beautiful example:
He mentions he’s always wanted to write a children's fantasy book or YA fantasy book, but hasn’t ever had the time, so this was a way to scratch that creative itch. He even created a journal of stories, and has written over 100 stories since then, and hopes to create multiple volumes in the future with a possible Kickstarter to work with multiple artists on wand sketches.
“That was a fun project, because I was able to work with…a really, really talented artist [who] did some sketches for all of my stories…And I made a wand for her,” he says of the original journal. “It was kind of meant to be like, if the Wandmaker was a real person, and they actually went out, and these stories were…what a worn travel journal would look like.”
With the level of detail he goes to, I’m curious about his process for how he creates a custom wand with customers, which is now about 12 weeks from start to finish. When people put in a request, he says he gives two options. They can talk through a design and he’ll sketch it out, OR there’s a “wand chooses the wizard” experience, which he says are his favorite.
“I ask a few questions, like, ‘What's your Hogwarts house? Choose an adjective between simple, natural, fancy, carved, and mystery. And then choose a word light, or dark?’ And based on those…I will just create something that…fits what I think the client would like, based on our conversation…how they communicate, and their answers,” he explains.
It’s a true to life Harry Potter experience where they're getting a wand that chooses them, and it absolutely makes his day seeing people unwrap their wands or share a reveal video.
“I love it when that happens. You know, the whole reason I do this is to have a creative outlet and to just bring people delight,” he says. “We've been in pretty dark times for the past few years, and I like bringing a smile to people's faces…so when I get a reveal video, or just someone with a picture…I just love that so much.”
He hopes to keep expanding the business, and in addition to his custom wand experience, he looks forward to creating some higher end wands, as well as more affordable wands, so they’re accessible to more people who love magical worlds.
What’s potentially the most time-consuming part of the business? As you might imagine, according to Deacon, “probably a shameful amount of time” goes into searching for the perfect pieces that could make or be incorporated into someone’s wand. He scours estate sales, antique shops, and thrifts online.
“There's a lot I pass on because it looks so similar to what I've done before,” he says.
Any exciting recent finds or pieces he’s excited to work with?
“Yes…I believe, it's Hera's head…it's sterling silver; it's over 200 years old,” he says. “It's beautiful, art nouveau…I'm really excited to put it out there…it was one of those, like, ‘Yep, I don't care how much it is.’”
Picture courtesy of Deacon Ales
He also doesn’t discriminate on the magical world his wands come from, and even got to create a few for actual cast members of The Magicians TV show (based on The Magicians series by Lev Grossman). But there’s one he’s especially excited about: “It's really old sterling silver, [and] it's got rams heads on both sides of a walking stick. I'm going to be crafting it down into different sections that represent all the high Kings and Queens of Fillory in…precious stones to kind of represent them in different elemental pieces…It's gonna be very intricate.”
Picture courtesy of Deacon Ales
I was blown away when he sent me a final picture of this one. Speaking of other magical worlds, Deacon’s also gotten back into reading in the last decade, mostly sticking to audiobooks, but also digging into hardcopies of his favorites, which include Brandon Sanderson.
“You know what it was, it was a friend [who] got me the first book of the Wheel of Time series…I started reading it and just devoured it. Couldn't sleep until it was finished…and what worked out well was by the time I finished the series, the last book Memory of Light came out…and then I've been avidly reading or listening to audiobooks since then.”
As such a dedicated Sanderson fan, I must get his advice on where to start, because it seems to be a point of contention on Booktok. Here’s his take: “Whenever I'm talking to someone about Sanderson and they've not read anything from him, I'll say read Warbreaker, because it's a standalone book…it's a very good doorway into how he builds worlds. And it's a part of The Cosmere…and then I'd say go into Mistborn after that.”
I shockingly have not read Sanderson yet, but I’ll be taking this advice when I get around to it, hopefully later this year. What else is on Deacon’s TBR? He’s been finding new authors through BookTok, including V.E. Schwab’s Shades of Magic series, “I'm starting to get into different authors actually…I just saw recommendations. Fine. I'll try it. And I'm glad I did.”
Does he have advice for those considering starting their own bookish business? It may seem obvious, but his go to is to be super passionate about what you’re building.
“When it's your own business, you are going to need to put a decent amount of time into it…and at those moments where you're either working with someone…or a situation that's a little more frustrating, your passion for the thing will be the thing that makes you not quit,” he says. “If you're trying to take inspiration or kind of fit the mold that a lot of other people are doing, you can still kind of fizzle out that way, but when you find your own style, your own voice that I think is what really helps you to keep going.”
And in doing this, you end up surrounding yourself with a community of people who also love the things you love. While not everything in the online world is positive, he believes it’s wonderful how the world has changed to be more accepting of people being, frankly, nerds.
“I think before there was like, ‘this is what's popular. And you can like this stuff.’ And that's it. And now…I think everyone's a nerd, right? Just about different things,” he says. “I mean, you can be a nerd about football…about cars, you can be a nerd about Tolkien…but you find those groups of people who are like minded, and it definitely feels like more of a fellowship. No pun intended…It helps us love the things that we love, you know, and not have to give up on it.”
Agreed. Here's to the nerds. May we always find one another.
Rapid Reveals:
Where to Find Deacon:
How he prefers to read:
Mostly audiobooks. “When I get into a story, I want to do nothing else. So when I'm driving, when I'm supposed to be sleeping, when I'm doing anything else, when I'm out in the workshop, I'll be listening to audiobooks generally.”
A Book he recently read that he’d recommend:
A Conjuring of Light by V.E. Schwab
His Autobuy Authors:
Tolkien, Jordan, Sanderson, and Paolini
Favorite Wheel of Time Book?
Book Four, The Shadow Rising
Fictional place he’d visit first?
“Middle-Earth, without any hesitation”
His happy place in our world?
“If I could find a little woodland trail around a pond or a lake or something, that'd be my mainstay spot.”