The castle of Hogwarts is a striking and inspiring figure present in all the Harry Potter books and movies. However, this is the first time it’s been made entirely out of matchsticks!
Designed by Patrick Acton, this matchstick masterpiece resides in a museum in Majorca, Spain – a location mentioned a few times in the series. The model is based on the version of Hogwarts Castle seen in the films, and it does a great job of capturing the spirit of Harry Potter.
On a technical note, the project took three years to build and used more than 602,000 matchsticks attached together with 15 gallons of wood glue. The sheer size of this model is mind-blowing – it’s significantly taller than the average person, and it looks absolutely flawless.
All of the towers, windows and rooftops– even the cliff on which it stands – are rendered in painstakingly perfect detail. I particularly like finely rendered balconies and the swinging pendulum on one particular building.
For the large and flat surfaces like the rooftops, I can only assume that a sander was used to smooth down the matchsticks, because it’s virtually impossible to see the outline of any individual match, even when viewed up-close. It almost seems like it was carved from large pieces of wood rather than tiny sticks of wood.
I am just in awe of this masterpiece; I can hardly believe someone dedicated three years of their life to replicating this beautiful castle, though it was certainly worth the effort. Upon first seeing it, I wondered whether it would look better if it was painted to resemble the castle, but now I realize that being left “raw” does a better job of showing off the incredible workmanship in this model.
Another architectural Harry Potter-themed wonder is this model of The Burrow, home of the Weasleys, made entirely out of gingerbread – which has the added bonus of being edible after being marveled at for a sufficient period of time. Also check out these cute Harry Potter pillows – they’re definitely a more approachable (and huggable) collection of crafts.
Via: LeetLady
