Charged by the sun: how a glow staff is made

When people see a staff glowing in the dark, the first question is how? There’s no battery and no wire. Just timber, copper, stone and light.

The timber chooses the shape

Every staff starts with a length of wood that already has something to say. A twist, a knot, a fork near the top that wants to hold a stone. I don’t fight that. I take the bark off, keep the character, and shape it until it sits right in the hand and right on the ground when you walk.

Then hours of sanding. This is the part nobody films because it’s boring. It’s also the part that makes a staff feel like it belongs to you the first time you pick it up.

Copper to hold the stone

The head of the staff is wrapped in copper wire. It cradles the crystal and locks it in place. I coil it by hand, turn by turn. Copper has been used by people all over the world for thousands of years, and I love the way it warms in the hand and darkens with time.

The crystal

Most of my staffs carry a clear quartz point, but a stone that means something to you can be set instead. Setting it is slow work. It has to be tight, and it has to look like it grew there.

The glow

This is the magic part that isn’t really magic. Glow powder is a mineral that soaks up light and gives it back slowly in the dark. I set it into the grain of the wood, into carved channels and spirals, and seal it.

Leave the staff in the sun for the day and it charges. When night comes it glows soft green-blue for hours. It’s one of my favourite things to watch: a piece of the day carried into the dark.

No two the same

Because the timber is never the same, the staff never is either. When one sells, that one is gone. If you’d like one made for you, for walking, for ceremony, for a doorway, tell me about it.

We are the words we choose to use…
G-star, Truth Warden Sol