Now for something new.

As long as I've been making pens it has been a word of mouth sort of deal. In the past I've tried working with ebay and Etsy (with no luck) in order to entice people to purchase pens I think they want. While this isn't ideal, it would be nice to be able to continue making pens and not have it cost me money.

The most joy I see people get from my pens is going through the selection process where they get to pick hardware, then I work with them to find out what types of woods would fit well from them, give them a selection, and finally have them pick something out. When its finished, the person is left with something they had custom made for them and had a fun time "designing".

With this in mind, I'm trying something new in my Etsy store (http://www.etsy.com/shop/thepeninme). For starters I've enabled the option to request a custom pen from me on the sidebar of my store. Secondly I have made an actual listing for a pen that isn't made (http://www.etsy.com/listing/94814657/custom-order-handmade-wooden-pen). Hopefully this excites people and encourages them to be more of a part of the process than just going to Etsy and buying something already made!

A Slurry of new pens

A good friend of mine commissioned me to make 6 pens for him recently. I had a lot of fun picking various woods to match the hardware he requested.

The first one is Tamarisk Eyeburl burl:

The second is Red Mallee Burl:

The third is Honduran Rosewood Burl:

The fourth is Desert Ironwood 2-tone:

The fifth is the ever popular Amboyna Burl:

Last but not least we have Afzelia Burl:

A pen for a Gentleman

More orders coming in means more gorgeous writing instruments! I crafted this out of Honduran Rosewood into a rhodium/gold capped desk pen.

A new beauty

I finished up an order for a friend: One Artists Sketch Pencil made from Cocobolo in black chrome. When she requested black chrome on a dark wood, I initially thought it wouldn't turn out that great, but I must admit I am sold and quite jealous that this pencil isn't for me. It turned out great despite the awfulness of the picture. When I moved to Texas I lost the hot lamps I was using for photography previously so I need to hunt some more down. These will have to do... for now.

Back in the Saddle!

The time following graduation found me with much too much free time on my hands. I strayed from pen making and wood turning all together, spent more time with family and friends, and moved to Austin Texas! I've recently been contacted by someone who wants to commission me to do seven high end pens to give away to high paying clients as gifts. I also have been contacted by a friend to make a couple as presents, so stay posted and I will have much to show off soon.

very GOOD mail

My good friend Timm sent me some segmented pen blanks in the mail ! I got right on turning the best of the bunch and here is the result. It really makes me want to get some more tools so I can start segmenting as well. Nice work Timm, this is my new daily pen.

Meet the ladies

I finally got done with 2 projects that have been on hold for longer than I will admit. The first is the stars and stripes pen kit I started a while back. I ran into some issues waiting for some parts to be made for me to properly square the blanks (proper fitment is important after all) but gave up on the guy and made my own, and they turned out OK. After finishing the stripes I had a problem where one of the stars popped out on me and I had to perform some surgery to get it back in properly. After that you couldn't even tell it had happened. There are some things I don't love about how I did it, and am sure the next one would come out perfect, but its still darn impressive to sit and stare longingly into the awesome.




The next is a very special pen that almost got ruined, but also was saved. It is an incredibly gorgeous piece of Cocobolo Burl. I've never seen Cocobolo Burl before, didn't even know it existed. My burl supplier told me in his 20 years he's never seen it come in before, and when he did I got 3 of the 100 pieces he made available to the public. Below is the first pen I've made from it, and it sure is gorgeous. I've never seen such a deep orange and awesome figure before. It will be a shame to part with her. 

These two, plus the pen I talked about here will make up the first batch of pens for my Etsy shop which I will post hopefully later tonight. Wish me luck!