Waterloo Region Record

Waterloo wand shop inspired by Harry Potter

Dubleve wands are decorated with charms, fabric and more

TERRY PENDER

There is a basement shop on Waterloo Street that is straight out of Hogsmeade — the wizarding village near the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

The owner was known as Twilight Rabbit online, but uses her real name, Jessie Clayman, at the brickand-mortar shop called Dubleve Wands in the basement of 142 Waterloo St.

“Platform 9 3 ⁄” says the train station 4 sign on the wall — the magic spot on the platform for the Hogwarts Express train in the Harry Potter stories.

These books and movies have millions of devoted fans, with an estimated 500 million books sold worldwide. But even then, Clayman stands out as one of the most dedicated.

After she started making wands in 2010, Clayman used the name Twilight Rabbit to sell them on Etsy, an online marketplace for crafters.

She also sold wands at fairs, festivals and conventions. In October 2019, she opened her shop.

“I figured it was sustainable between festivals and what I would

make at the shop,” said Clayman. “And then yeah, COVID.”

Wearing a witch’s hat and an N95 mask, Clayman sits behind a desk in the shop and talks about the importance of the Harry Potter books to her family.

“My mother really wanted us to read them as a family. She had started reading them to my baby brother. There is a nine-year difference in age,” said Clayman.

When she hesitated, Clayman’s mother urged her to try the first chapter on her own.

“I was hooked,” said Clayman. So Clayman started reading the books to her younger brother. The books and stories weaved their way into the fabric of the family.

She was cat-sitting in Oakville for some relatives when the third book was expected, “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.” She walked for five hours through the suburbs to a bookstore on Lake Ontario only to be told it was not out yet.

In high school, Clayman was intrigued by tarot cards and eventually illustrated two decks of her own. She’s currently writing a companion book for them. Her cards are displayed in the shop too, near the wands.

She started making wands in 2010 while working for a costume business. When some new product arrived, Clayman and her manager were excited to open it. The box said “Harry Potter Wands.”

“The wands are an integral part to the Harry Potter story and plot,” said Clayman.

After opening the box, she stared at the brown, moulded plastic wands that looked like “fake poop.”

“I said: ‘I can do better.’ My boss said: ‘Prove it,’ ” said Clayman.

So she started making wands, and in 2016 struck out on her own selling them, at medieval fairs, Harry Potter festivals and the like.

She started with a dowel, stained it to make it look nice, wrapped fabric around one end for a handle and decorated it. A charm hangs off the end of the handle.

“The problem is, charms that are moulded to the wand means you can’t customize the wand,” said Clayman.

“So it evolved, I add a link to my wand handles now.”

Fans can hang their own charms and decorate it toward “potions” or “quidditch,” said Clayman.

“They have really evolved. I am decorating them with Swarovski or Preciosa crystals because as a kid I was very sad when there was a plastic crystal in something, it didn’t shine,” said Clayman. “These shine.”

The wooden dowels are shaped by hand. She paints them with an airdrying polymer, and wraps the handle with fabric using hot glue. Some have what looks like a stone at the end of the handle.

“This is my latest iteration, where I have added on a polymer-clay pommel, a lot of them look like stone and a lot of time I try to make it look like painted-and-fired clay.”

Clayman’s wands and tarot cards take up a small amount of space in the shop. She displays the work of several other local artists, some of whom she met while renting space upstairs at the K-W Artists Coop.

When this space became available, she snapped it up. She sold hats and wands online during the worst of the pandemic, and since reopening the magic of word-ofmouth advertising helped the business grow.

Like the literary hero who inspired her, Clayman is generous with her friends.

“I wanted to keep the connections I have with local artists alive,” said Clayman. “It’s been hard on them. We didn’t have festivals to go to, we didn’t have conventions and so I offer my space to local artists for free.”

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2022-06-27T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-06-27T07:00:00.0000000Z

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