Craft: Prophecy Orb

Spoiler: If you have seen Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, (and the movies after that one) you probably remember the prophecy. Harry and his friends goes to the Ministry of Magic, to “save” Sirius and there they encounter the prophecy room, which includes Harrys own prophecy.

Inspired by that very prophecy I wanted to try to make one. Found a reference photo on the internet (see below). In the movie we mostly see the orb itself, and not the base that much. But the base is the fun part to make, so here we go.

I ignored the whole black block, which is not really a part of it. Just something it stands on when they sell it at The Noble Collection or wherever they sell it. Started out with Fimo Clay to create the dragons. Are they dragons? Someone here with more knowlegde of mythical creatures?

Gave them a light roast in the oven, as per the instructions on the package. While the dragons were chillin’ in the heat I sprayed the ‘orb’ with Satin Lacquer.

For the orb I used one of these “DIY christmas ornament baubles”. Can you tell I have no clue what to call it whatsoever? When the varnish/lacquer was completly dry, I cut of the little protruding bits. Should probably have done that before I sprayed them, but hey, it worked fine. Stuffed the bauble with iridescent foil to make it look a little more like in the movie. As you can see in the reference pic, there is nothing in the orb there, but in the movie it has this kind of swirling blue-white smoke… Yeah. My description might leave something to be desired. See the movie or google it, and you’ll know what I mean.

Anyway, my dragons were done with their roasting and cooling and I proceeded to paint. I used spray paint in the exciting color gold. Had to do it in several turns to make sure every angle was covered.

When dry, I painted it a little more. This time I went over with black to enhance the details. You paint with black and then you wipe it off with a cloth or something. Some of the black will remain in the creases.

In the picture above you can see the difference before (right) and after (left) I have applied some black paint. It’s not that much of a difference, but it gives an aged feel to it. Leave it to dry for one last time. Then I put my orb and dragons together, and it is complete. One could glue the orb to the base, but I wanted to be able to take them apart, so it’s just resting on top.

If you compare it to the reference photo, you’ll see that they aren’t that similar, but it was fun to make and I am happy with it.

Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery

For the past few weeks I have been trying the new Harry Potter themed game from Portkey Games, Jam City and Warner Bros. Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery is kind of a role-playing video game. You create an avatar and go to Hogwarts. While there, things happens and you take classes, and there is a plot aside from that, you make friends and enemies, in other words; you get the Hogwarts experience.

You have to make choices along the way. You can’t really change the whole plot or anything, but you can affect little things, like your house points or skill level. I am currently in my second year. Every year has some chapters, in which you will learn certain things, take certain lessons and meet certain people. Below you can see my avatar:

All pictures are screenshots from the game, and all you see is created by Jam City. 
You can change your clothes, your hair, your facial features and make it look more like yourself or something you want it too look like. Aside from going through the school year and levels, you also earn points within three traits, as seen on the right side. A higher level enables more choices and gives more of a bonus in some cases.

You will have different tasks, like a lesson in transfiguration, as seen above. You might see the blue lines, they indicate that there is something you can do with this person or object to gain points in that lesson. You have to gain points to get the stars needed for the lesson. (See the bar at the top?)

You can also do things outside of the classroom, and throughout the game more rooms or areas in the school will be available to you.

I am not the most avid player. I play every now and then, not even every day. Empty out my energy bar, and come back another day, unless I am in the middle of a task and just have to wait for the refill, then I’ll come back an hour later or something to finish the task. Sometimes I forget that I am in the middle of something and the task will have run out of time, and I have to start over. I have seen that some complain about the waiting time for energy, but personally I don’t find it a bother. I guess for those who actually go in several times a day, it can be bothersome, but I am sure the developers have thought this through. I am glad that there is a limit to how much one can do in one go, otherwise I would have played the whole thing through in a night, and then what.

Are you guys playing? How are you feeling about this game? I like the game, and I’m looking forward to see what happens later in the game.

On instagram lately.

Recently I made an effort to take more creative photos, ’cause my camera has been collecting dust for a while now. My way into this foray was through Harry Potter (of course). I find it easier to be creative when I have an area to focus on. Posted my photos on instagram, but figured I could share them here as well, so here you are:

As you can see, I started out quite easy, and then “advanced” with every day passing. It was fun to be creative in the way of photography again. Maybe I’ll try some other ideas throughout the summer. Time will show.