Just some pens

Just some pens I've been working on lately!

This is tamarind, stabilized in red acrylic and placed in a patriotic bolt action setting.

This is also the red tamarind, this time in a shiny black setting.

Two acrylic blanks fused together and placed in a "Salute The Troops" setting.

Rich red padauk wood in an exquisite gold and gun metal setting.

Stabilized holly in a magnetic chrome capped pen setting.

Rich red padauk in a demure gun metal setting.

Hand-made acrylic in an exquisite gold and gun metal setting.

"Time" for something new

When lightning struck in the small wooded area behind our house, knocking down a dead or dying pine tree, my kids decided I had to have the wood. The guys who cleaned up the mess were nice enough to cut the trunk into five-foot sections which just happened to disappear before they came around to collect them.

It sat back there for months while I hemmed and hawed about what I'd do with it. Sculpture? Maybe. Pens? Nah, pine's too common. I cut some discs off an end with the chainsaw my wife couldn't believe I bought and then hemmed and hawed again. That hemming and hawing gave the discs time to dry out and split. 

"Oh, great. Ruined," I thought ... until playing with my acrylic one night. Why not fill the crack with acrylic? That'd be cool. So I sanded two of the discs down. That's when I realized they wouldn't ever become smooth working end-grain like that, at least as not as smooth as I'd like. 

Then I had another epiphany. Why not fill the pocks and pores with acrylic too? So the cracks are filled with regular blue acrylic. When that hardened, I turned the piece over and slathered the faces with blue acrylic with phosphorescent powder added.

While that was drying, I sprayed the clock hands with clear phosphorescent paint. When the acrylic dried, I sanded away the excess, leaving just the pocks, crack and wood. I came out pretty cool, I think. Next time I'm going to carve out 12, 3, 6 & 9 in the wood and fill those with acrylic.

Let me know what you think!