Snake-O-Pearl

[BRobbins629]

Thought I'd try something a little different for #100

 

[chitswood]

Interesting, what is the snake made of?

 

[BRobbins629]

Originally posted by chitswood
<br />Interesting, what is the snake made of?

Face - White Mother of Pearl
Eye - Paua Abalone
Tongue - Cast Red PR
Body - Alternating Black and White Mother of Pearl with black epoxy in joints
Background is cast PR with Green Mixol and silk luster pigment.

 

[NavyDiver]

Neat look. How long did it take you to peice together?

 

[BRobbins629]

Originally posted by NavyDiver
<br />Neat look. How long did it take you to peice together?

Thanks - stopped counting after about 20 hours - the little pieces about 10-15 minutes on average each, the tongue was about an hour project and the head took over an hour because I had to contour the underside of these to the shape of the tube and get the eye in. A long time, yes, but very relaxing for me and something to keep me busy inside when it was too cold to get in the shop.

 

[Rob]

Really nice Bruce. Certainly unique.

 

[jjenk02]

Very nice, but I'm not sure I would have enough patience for that.

 

[thewishman]

Ssssay, that looksssss sssssswell!

Chrisssssss

 

[alxe24]

Congrats. You made a keeper for #100. Seems like you wnet a long ways for 100 pens. The background is very nice too. Beautiful pen.
Alex

 

[Radman]

Hey... That's a real neat pen there. Great job on a novel idea. Can't wait until you do #200!
[8D]

 

[rovercat]

Interesting. Nice work

 

[Jim15]

That is a great pen.

 

[johncrane]

Congrats Bruce!onya (100) looks very interesting' you done a top job with all the bit's and pieces great use off material's also,is it a protected species (p.s) not for sale.[][]

 

[BRobbins629]

Originally posted by johncrane
<br />Congrats Bruce!onya (100) looks very interesting' you done a top job with all the bit's and pieces great use off material's also,is it a protected species (p.s) not for sale.[][]

Thanks John and all the other for your comments. and yes. this one's a keeper.

 

[Ozzy]

Cool pen Bruce.

 

[JimGo]

Congrats on a heck of a pen Bruce! MUCH too much detail work for me!

 

[wudnhed]

Super awesome pen, Bruce! I love the color and it's just so unique. A pen like that can't be just slapped together. A person can tell alot of thought and creativity put this pen together. WOW!

 

[NCWoodworker]

excellent work!

where did you get the materials, if you don't mind sharing...especially the mother of pearl and Paua Abalone. Would you also mind sharing how you cut them? It looks like you had a good process at hand as the segments look relatively symmetric..and the head had to have been a challenge

cheers,
chris

 

[Hiram33]

very nice how did you do the snake? looks like a lot of prep work

 

[Penmonkey]

Very good work Bruce. I like seeing pens like this one. Thank you for showing it.

 

[BRobbins629]

Originally posted by NCWoodworker
<br />excellent work!

where did you get the materials, if you don't mind sharing...especially the mother of pearl and Paua Abalone. Would you also mind sharing how you cut them? It looks like you had a good process at hand as the segments look relatively symmetric..and the head had to have been a challenge

cheers,
chris

Thanks Chris and all the others with nice comments. The mother of pearl comes from www.luthiersupply.com Be careful if you go to the website as you may wind up looking through the offerings for several hours like I did. He sells sea shell blanks in a variety of colors as well as precut shapes which I have also inlaid. For the body of this pen, I cut the slabs of shell with a slow speed diamond saw into strips approximately 0.075 wide. The saw has a micrometer adjustment so it was easy to duplicate the widths. This gave me pieces about 1-2" long which I cut with a side cutter a little oversize. I then glued them on the surface of the brass tube with a drop of CA and trimmed the width with a small grinding wheel in a Dremel tool - time consuming but very relaxing for me. For the head, I had to use 2 thickness of pearl glued together and on the underside I filed/sanded a groove to the radius of the tube. On larger pieces of pearl, if you don't do this, the edges will dissapear when you turn. Shape of head is freehand with dremel grinder. I read about a trick for making the circle for the eye which is to drill a hole, grind the bottom of the drill bit flat, CA glue on a piece of pearl and sand to the diameter of the bit. When you dissolve the glue, you have a circle that fits perfectly in the driled hole.

Hiram33 - see above