George,
You have taken them to a whole new level, they are magnificent.
It is like asking, "Of your Children, which one do you love the most?"
I Love them All.
If I had to pick one it would be the Red, for being the most appropriate of the Australian "Outback" colour.
I can see Glorious Pens hiding inside all of them.
I appreciate that to have them all is to increase your Inventory, but from a marketing aspect, you are widening your market appeal, and sales potential.
Perhaps the most pertinent question, is can your precious Banksia keep up with the demand?
Absolutely Awesome,
Congratulations.
Brian.
Hi Brian,
You have hit the nail in the head mate, and on the lonnnng post that I had originally written and lost for whatever the reason, I had focussed carefully on that aspect and admitted that, this would be seen as something that is not what I intend. I couldn't possible add these option to my stock, I can consider these as possibilities and or choices for those that make a special request that, the pods that I had to use to make the clear ones for his/hers order, to be used to make a coloured option however, my molds capacity is 7 blanks, and I would prefer to use the molds capacity, every time possible so, no I'm not going to make them as part of the stock, I have enough problems as it is...!
These samples are simply to address a question that I had in my mind, would it be suitable to colour the pods with some coloured resin and, what colour(s) would prevent the transparency issue...???
I've simply used pod pieces that I had a problem with, I've basically used the pods of 4 normal blanks to make these so, it means that I've lost 4 blanks of the clear option, until now the only option, and from now, "one of the options...!"
I certainly don't want to increase the sales of any blanks that use the main body of the Banksia hairy pods, unless I find a outside supply of the pods, even then, I won't to spend all my time working with resin so, I would be a little less restrictive to its sales and could introduce the coloured ones to the inventory but, that is not the case, at the moment...!
I still have "people" that gets annoyed because they can buy as many blanks as they want, because they wanted the re-sell them, and used the demand to make their money however, not with this "puppy" so, they try all possible tricks with extra names and addresses to get quantities but I simply cancel all orders and report them on eBay.
To those that have been with me for some time, and have helped me through the years or those that haven't been in the pen making industry for that long but that, enjoy to work with my blanks, those I try to support also by keeping some in stock for them, off-course, that are the new turners that learn about these blanks and see them as a "benchmark" they want to achieve, and a challenge they take as the skills level and confidence, increases, for those, I would like to be continue to be able to have some I can supply...!
Now, there are 2 aspects of these thread that I would like to highlight, in case you missed it on the OP, the first one is that, I have a box full of this Banksia cut-off that I get from the 5% of pods that are bigger that what I need to make the normal blanks, these pieces were used for the first time, in one of the 5 samples shown, reason why I request if you could identify which one and give me your interpretation of how you think they were made.
The second aspect is that, the very reason why I only now decided to try to use the coloured, and the reason I mention about, to have a "problem with" some pod pieces that I cut a few weeks back and made the mistake of not stabilizing them immediately, I did stabilized about half of what I had cut, with the intention to get the second lot going for later but, after I got the first lot stabilized I put my attention to get them ready for casting and then finishing them, as I had orders to fill so, I endup leaving the raw pods in the cardboard box with the top closed.
However my attempt to keep the box closed to avoid any dust and stuff to get in, I didn't think much about the small "residents" I have living in the shed, and I'm talking of the little mice. These little fellows, have never touched the full pods as the seeds sell is hard as rock but, the seeds are apparently very sweet and I had made their life quite easy by, slicing the pod and exposing all the seed from the shells so, they created some feeding channels to steal the seeds and leave my pods pieces, full of holes (where the seeds were...!
).
So, why is that, I saw these "tempered" pods pieces more suitable to use with the coloured resins...??? well, if the seeds were there, the coloured resin would only show at the ends and middle where the hairs are, while having these seed shell open/empty, I could use the coloured resin to create a more uniform blank, one that would be a combination of the normal Hairy and Dwarf Banksias.
The seeds give a very special characteristic to the regular clear Resifills, the resin transparency reveals every aspect of this pod, not having the seeds there, the blank wouldn't look the same, and I don't want that. With the coloured resin filling all those shell holes, there is still enough detail showing from the pod to complement the blank so, there is the combination of all these factors that made me do these samples now, rather than earlier or later...!
There is also the fact that, the seedless pods, can not be wasted just because of that and this is my interpretation of one of the best way of using them.
I'm yet to count the pieces and find out how many blanks I can make out of them, I will them cast them depending on the colours preferences you folks suggest, or a just make a mix of colours and offer them for sale...!
I'm also considering to make some of the mystery blank among the 5 blanks above, also in a combination of colours and offer them for sale at a slightly lower price (even though they take as much time to make as the normal ones however, the pod pieces are not stabilized but, they are still quite workable that way, thin CA would be your best friend, on these..!)
They could be an excellent "practice" run, in preparation to the "real thing", you succeed on them, you will be just fine with the "original" ones...!:wink::biggrin:
Well, this is only a part of what I had written originally so, things may start to make a little more sense now, huh...???
Cheers
George
