The Candlestick
I constructed this walking-stick with a built-in candle-holder for use with a model in a twilight setting. A step-by-step description of the assembly of this prop follows below.
The glass candle-holder was initially an ordinary champagne flute. I looked at many different wine and champagne glasses until I found one that seemed to be the most appropriate in both shape and size. Like most champagne flutes, the one that I selected had a wide base connected by a narrow stem, and all of this had to go. I chopped off the base about half-way up the stem, using a Dremel rotary tool and a specialized bit for cutting through glass.
Then I gave the interior of the glass a frosted appearance by scratching it with medium-grit sandpaper - I frosted only the interior, leaving the exterior smooth and shiny to catch reflections and highlights.
For the stick, I purchased an ordinary pine-wood pole from the hardware store, and hollowed out one end of the stick with my Dremel tool. The wood is nearly paper-thin where it meets the glass. Although very subtle, I shaped the stick to give it a more interesting form, and the lower end of the stick tapers to a fine point where it meets the ground.
To secure the glass in the hole, I wrapped the remaining portion of the stem with a sticky material that's commonly used in schools as a replacement for tacks and pins - it's sticky enough to hold the glass in place, but flexible enough to remove the glass when necessary.
The stick then received a coat of spar varnish, followed by several thin, transparent applications of white paint intended to make the wood resemble the frosted glass where the two materials meet. Finally, I applied a coat of clear polyurethane.
With the addition of a candle carved to fit the interior of the glass, the project was finally complete, but only after a comedy of errors along the way (it wasn't as easy it may sound).