The Staff of Awesomeness

That is the Staff of Awesomeness.  I'm open to suggestions for other names.  It's approximately six feet tall. (I haven't measured it since it was completed).  I made this to go with a costume that all started with two bracelets that I got on clearance.  

I started with two 3/4" dowel rods and one 1/4" dowel rod.  The two dowel rods were actually four feet each and I cut one in half. 

The next step was to paint it gold.  I used hammered gold because it has kind of an antique look that goes with the bracelets.  After the paint dried, my dad drilled holes into one end of each dowel and then I used a small piece of the 1/4" dowel as a dowel pin to support it so it would wobble less.  (Sorry no pics or video of that)

I then had some more painting to do because there were some spots I missed the first time.  

After that paint dried, I used this stuff called Fiber Fix.  It's basically the same stuff they used on my cast when I broke my hand last year.  It's easy to use and hardens quickly and it's VERY secure.  So that staff is put together and will not wobble.  I decided to leave it black to give the staff a little character, and that is a natural place for me to put my hand. 

Next I did the orb for the top.  I used a clear plastic Christmas ornament and some glass paint.  

I poured a whole hell of a lot of paint into the ball and then shook it around to get that kind of smokey look.  It actually turned out a lot better than I thought it would.  And it took forever for the paint to dry because there was so much paint. 

I'm still not completely sure that the paint was dry when I got around to attaching it to the dowels.  I had to do a little sanding but I did slide the dowel into the ornament and then taped it in place with gold duct tape. 

I then cut the 1/4" dowel into six pieces approximately 5" in length.  I put glue on one end and attached that to the ornament and then I taped the dowel in place on the staff part.  (No pics of the step by step process of that because my dad helped and he was in his underwear at the time.) 

Once the glue dried, I used some more of the gold duct tape to reinforce the dowels and hold them in place.  I then coated the duct tape in glue.  

I then wrapped the whole thing with twine to cover up the duct tape to give it a really cool look.  

Once that was done I put painters tape around the top part and painted the twine with the same hammered gold as the rest of the staff.  

This is a close up of the top of the completed staff.  It only took me a few hours total over a couple of nights.  Once I have everything done, I'll post a picture of the entire costume.  I think it will be epic.  And I did mean that, I'm totally open for suggestions of other possible names.