thinking about how long it would've taken hunter to carve waffle.. i don't think she was the first palisman he carved. i think he learned how to do it from the clawthornes because he knew the joy a palisman could bring someone, and he wanted other witches to experience that.. but for a while he couldn't bring himself to carve a new companion for himself.. it felt like a betrayal to flapjack somehow. he didn't want to replace him, after all.
i like to think waffle was a palisman he got inspiration for and worked on slowly, over time.. bird palismans were always the hardest for him to do, because of the memories there.. so he took his time with waffle, he wanted to try his hand at a bird but he didn't want a replica of flapjack.. and he made her. he wasn't going to paint her, was going to leave her for someone else, but.. something told him to.
so he painted her, and as he worked on her, struck with what he was doing in his life and what he wanted for his future, she was alive, suddenly.. and her staff came to him. hunter being so caught off guard and just refusing to accept it at first, similar to his reluctance to accept flapjack.. because he isn't sure if he's ready for another palisman. but she's always there for hunter, just like her spiritual brother was. she helped opened hunter's heart again, and he learned to love and accept her, even naming her eventually, though he refused to do so for a while. waffle just seemed to fit.
hunter grew to accept that waffle wasn't a replacement for flapjack.. but she healed his heart, showed him that it was okay to have another companion, that it wasn't a betrayal. flapjack would always be with him, but waffle helped him start to move on for real.