Fern's Staff

Modeled after Fern’s staff from the anime Frieren, this 4-foot-9-inch wooden staff follows a slender shaft into a series of flowing curves and a broad, shaped head. Carved by hand with chisel and saw, it keeps the grain and knots visible within the form. The resulting silhouette carries a little fantasy into the workshop, where the principal spell remains removing quite a lot of wood.

The process views begin with measuring and cutting: pencil guidelines, rough edges, and the accumulating offcuts of a shape being worked out. The carved view reveals the staff’s distinct curves before color changes their character. Dark mahogany stain deepens the surface, and the final close-up shows glossy sealant catching the light across the rich, dark wooden texture, with warmer lines of grain still glowing through.

Made lovingly as a Halloween gift for a loved one, the staff has a purpose more personal than its gallery presentation might suggest. Its length, hand-shaped features, and carefully finished surface are all part of that gesture: time spent making a piece of someone else’s imagined world tangible. No curatorial theory improves much on that.