Reddit mentions of The Essence of Magick: A Wiccan’s Guide to Successful Witchcraft

Do you want it to be a wand? Does that feel right? Trust your intuition. There's also no one right way to use a wand: in my magical tradition they correspond with air but in most traditions they correspond with fire. It can be used to direct energy or draw boundary lines. IMO you're moving energy primarily with your body, a tool just helps. Just like a hammer or screwdriver works. If you lack a wand you can do the same thing by just pointing with a finger and moving energy.

There's lots of ways to consecrate a magical tool, but you can make up your own ritual if you want; eg cleanse the wand (salt, smoke, whatever you do), open a circle, call in whatever entities/elements/etc you want, do the consecrating thing (it can even as basic as just be stating your will or intent, and/or asking the entities you work with to help), then close the circle. Here's the instructions I followed by my tradition but if you're new to magical stuff I'd recommend getting something like this e-book, it's $5 and goes over all the basics in a way that's very accessible and can be generalized to a lot of different traditions, it uses the four elements to consecrate stuff.

I also think it's good practice to leave an offering if you take something from a living plant. I got my wand off Etsy, some witch named Blink from County Cork in Ireland drags old preserved black bog wood out the peat bog and hand carves it into a simple, plain, clean spindle of wood (it only cost like $20 so I gave a huge tip). Since I primarily work with Gaelic deities and my ancestry on my mom's side is Irish I feel like it really gives me a connection to my spiritual roots. The bog wood has this energetically heavy & strong feel, like a big pickup truck lol. You'll know what's right for you, and you can always experiment and make another wand later if you want something different.

Feel free to let us know how it works out!