Panel Guests, Demonstrators, Vendors, oh my...

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There's lots of new entries to our blog for Mid-Atlantic Penturners Gathering on May 2&3, in Glen Allen, Virginia. You can read them all for yourself at Mid-Atlantic Penturners Gathering 2014 - Our Blog but I thought I would share a few here.

April 14, 2014: Meet our Guest Panel - Alan Shaw (ashaw)

Alan Shaw
Alan Shaw (ashaw) has been interested in fountain pens since third grade. He started collecting pens but was later forced to sell his collection when his job was out sourced in 2001. He started learning the art of pen making in 2002. In 2006 Shaw Pens started selling his pens at one retail location and then expended to several other locations along the East Coast. As of 2014 Shaw Pens has 32 retail locations plus a number of corporate accounts. Shaw Pens has been featured in both Stylus and Pen World a number of times. Shaw Pens has also been written up in the Philadelphia Business Journal and a number of national and international newspapers. In addition to making custom pens Alan has also been designing pens and pencils for PSI.

Alan will be a guest on our "Marketing your Pens" Discussion panel on Friday night. Please visit Shaw Pens for more information.

April 13, 2014: Meet our Demonstrator - Brett Ransom (hard hat)

Brett Ransom
Brett Ransom (hard hat) will be demonstrating anodizing with Bruce Robbins. Here are a few words he had to say about how he got interested in penturning, "I have been turning pens for just over three years now. I didn't really know what I was getting into when this all started. I had just bought a table saw and went into Woodcraft for some materials when I saw lathes and pen kits and all kinds of beautiful blanks. I just had to do that! The obsession hit and my attention to detail really made it fun. As I love a new challenge, my wonderful wife bought me a metal lathe and then I set up for anodizing aluminum. The focus of my pen turning is challenging myself to do something I've not done before." You can see examples of Brett's work in our Photo Album.

Brett will also be moderating our contests this year. Specific rules and more details can be found on our main page, so keep this in mind when planning your next project!

March 26, 2014: Meet our Vendor - Jonathon Brooks (Brooks803)

Jonathon Brooks
Jonathon Brooks (aka Brooks803) has been turning pens since 2009. His creativity quickly led him to try casting his own pen material. Since then he has developed his own unique style of pen blank and has turned casting into his full time job. He uses both Polyester Resin and Alumilite to cater to the kit and custom pen makers of the world.

This year he will be one of our vendors and will have a plethora of blanks for sale. You can also find his work at www.exoticblanks.com/Brook-s-Blanks/.
 
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April 23, 2014: Meet our Demonstrator - Rick Crook (rfcrook)!

Rick Crook

Rick Crook (rfcrook) is a retired Henrico County police officer who has been woodworking for over twenty years and turning now for over ten years. "I wanted to start taking my pens to a higher level than just putting together a kit pen. The secret of making a nice celtic knot pen is found both in the jigs used to produce the blanks and your sense of color and texture in your raw materials. This demo will start you on the road to making excellent celtic knot pens with far less headaches than you would expect."

Rick works at the Woodcraft of Richmond and will demonstrate the gigs and methods he uses for making Celtic knot pen blanks. Rick was also a demonstrator for our first MAPG 2013, and showed how to apply the new CA during the finishing demo.

April 17, 2014: Meet our Vendor / Demonstrator / Panel Guest / Donor - Barry Gross of Arizona Silhouette!

Barry Gross

Thanks to Barry Gross (2bgross) for joining us at Mid-Atlantic Penturners Gathering this year. In August 2012 Barry Gross purchased Arizona Silhouette and moved it to PA. He is an artisan with over 30 years of varied experience working in several diverse media. Barry is inspired by nature and loves the texture and rich feel of each piece of exotic wood that he turns. He has published over 50 articles in several woodworking magazines, is an author of three books on turning and just released his second DVD.

Barry Gross recently shared the latest news on his upcoming schedule, "For the first 13 weeks of 2014 we have demonstrated pen making to thousands of people throughout the eastern half of the country, traveling from New England to Florida and as far west as Kansas City. Now, it is time to get ready for upcoming events such as club demonstrations, Chesapeake Woodturners - Atlantic Shore Woodturners, the Mid Atlantic Pen Gathering and fine art and craft shows (Paradise City Arts Festival). In June, we are off to Indianapolis to teach at Marc Adams School of Wood Working. In July we are teaching at Arrowmont School of Arts & Crafts and in August we will be demonstrating at Turn On Chicago! A few weeks off and then it is back on the road for the fall wood working season heading for the western part of the country and the fall art and craft show season! We will end the second week of December just in time to start the winter season for the Wood Working Shows!"

In addition to vending, Barry Gross will be participating in our "Marketing your Pens" discussion panel on Friday night and demonstrating how to make a pen from start to finish on Saturday. Thanks to Barry for donating a $50.00 gift certificate to Arizona Silhouette as a door prize for MAPG 2014!
 
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As a recap, here are some of the earlier blog entries submitted.

March 23, 2014: Meet our Vendor - Fred and Tina Wissen (PTownSubbie and MrsPTownSubbie)

Fred Wissen Designs LLC is owned by Fred and Tina (PTownSubbie and MrsPTownSubbie), with the help of two wonderful children, Brittany and Zachary. Fred recently retired from the Navy in December of 2013 after 28 years of service and is now working as a program manager for URS. Tapping into his engineering background, Fred has learned how to custom design handcrafted molds to pour your own casted pen blanks. He will be demonstrating his various clear casting examples using Alumilite, but will also discuss PR (polyester resin) brands he has also used to clear cast pen blanks such as labels, bottle caps, metal foil pens, painted blanks, snakeskins, carbon fiber, and other alternative materials.

Tina Wissen has worked in various fields of retail business for over 20 years and has specifically marketed pens and supplies since 2009. She recently completed a college degree in business and will be sharing updated information learned on how to use social media during our "Marketing your Pens" group discussion on Friday night.

Fred and Tina will be selling silicone casting molds and their other pen blanks found on PTownSubbie.com at MAPG 2014. Tina will be a guest on the "Marketing your Pens" Discussion Panel on Friday, May 2, and Fred will be demonstrating clear casting on Saturday, May 3.

March 11, 2014: Meet our Vendor - Roy and Dee Robaldo (OKLAHOMAN)

Roy Robaldo

From Roy Robaldo of Classic Nib (OKLAHOMAN), "A little background on how Dee and me got into pen making and then into the wholesale business. I began making pens as a hobby a number of years ago when I bought a lathe off of EBay at 3 AM one morning and had no Idea why I bought it. Dee was in the hospital recovering from a double mastectomy and I just could not sleep. A while later I found the IAP and the hobby became an obsession. Now I had to find a way to pay for the hobby and had a meeting with a Mr. Steve Roberts and his wife Amy at our house, he showed me how to apply to very upscale art shows and how to price my "ART" err pens. We traveled the Art circuit for 4 years made good money but there comes a time when the brain is willing but the body is not. Another good friend Lou Metcalf know on the IAP as DC Bluesman asked me if I would be interested in going into partnership with him and contact the Bock Nib company in Germany to become a Bock distributor we said yes and even sent him a check for the first purchase. Two weeks later he suffered a stroke, so Dee and I contacted Bock and negotiated a deal to become Bock dealers and have the Bock Logo on the nibs. Classic Nib was born."

We have grown from one product line with 6 items to what we are now today with over forty product lines with hundreds of items and at last count 18 Vendor Partners. Our family of vendor partners is the backbone of Classic Nib and we are proud to give them a place to sell their works of art. This year we finally released our new ClassicNib.com which we think is the best in its class.

Roy will be part of the "Marketing your Pens" group discussion on Friday night and also be selling pen supplies featuring vendors Marla Mills, Keith Henning, and more.

March 6, 2014: Meet our Vendor - Eric Beuker (Buzzzz4)

Eric Beuker (Buzzzz4) and his kids spend time together both casting pen blanks and turning pens since 2008. Eric's casting focus is in embedded blank casting. He really enjoys placing things in resin and finding the beauty within the pen blank. Eric's blanks have been seen in Pen World Magazine as well as Woodturning Designs Magazine. He has won awards for his mini-pinecones, cherry pits, and antler bits castings.

You can find Eric's castings at Exotic Blanks :: Guest Artist's Blanks :: Eric's Artistic Embeds.
 
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Here are the first three of the blog profiles we have for our demonstrators and vendors.

March 4, 2014: Meet our Demonstrator - Eric Rasmussen (Sylvanite)

Eric Rasmussen

Eric Rasmussen (Sylvanite) has been turning pens for 7 years and enjoys trying out unusual materials such as petoskey stone, knotted thread, and cast gunpowder. You may know him, however, from his IAP postings on Photography Basics and Photoshop Tips. Eric is bringing a simple tabletop light tent and will walk through a sample pen photography session, showing why and how to choose appropriate camera settings to control photo perspective, exposure, white balance, focus, depth-of-field, and noise. If time permits, he'll also discuss some fundamentals of photo composition and lighting - or photo post-processing (photoshop). Is your camera better at taking pictures than you are? If so, this is your chance to gain the upper hand.

IAP hyperlinks to Eric's tutorials can be found in our photo album.

March 4, 2014: Meet our Vendor - Richard Greenwald (penmaker56)

Richard Greenwald

Here are the latest happenings from one of our vendors, Richard L. Greenwald LLC, "It has been a busy year, so busy, that I have not made a pen in 2 years now. Just after last year's MAPG I had to breakdown my lathe and mill for servicing, just after I had my mill in pieces, Betsy and customers put pressure on me to make plastic pen blanks since we were very low on stock, and Bexley wanted the new FLEXIGRAN plastic for their yearly limited edition Owners Club, plus Penworld magazine wanted a photoshoot for one of their articles. In what little spare time, I still had pen shows to do, finished the nib tipping welding machine, and other photoshoots to do. I stopped making plastics this January, which included a custom order of FLEXIGRAN for the Franklin-Christophe Pen Company, and samples for Delta, Stipula, and Conway-Stewart pen companies. I needed a break from making plastics; I then started practicing re-tipping fountain pen nibs, and found that I had to make a nib slitting saw, which I started to build, but needed my mill to finish, so, I had to put my mill back together again from last June (a Catch-22), that is now done and I can finish the slitting saw (I have pressure from a lot of pen repair technicians to start re-tipping). Once that is done, I have to make some more decorative rings, have about 1000 parts to plate (nickel, gold, and rhodium), practice re-tipping, and then I have to get back to plastics both PR and FLEXIGRAN. Oops, forgot the 5-10 Parker Duofold ball point pens that I get in every month from around the world to repair the mechanism. Just absolutely no time to even think about making a new pen."

Richard will be selling refills, blanks, parts, etc. but not pens, photographs, quill making, or nib tipping items at MAPG 2014. More information about his products can be found at www.richardlgreenwald.com.

February 26, 2014: Meet our Demonstrator - Bruce Robbins (BRobbins629)

Bruce Robbins

Bruce Robbins (BRobbins629) will be demonstrating how to make and anodize an aluminum pen at the MAPG this year. Bruce has been making pens for about 9 years and always enjoys a new material or design challenge. As a prelude to the demo on anodizing aluminum, he will turn and aluminum click pen on a wood lathe, tapping threads for the mechanism and shaping the nose cone/nib with some homemade tools. See a picture of this style in the photo album as well as a few other aluminum/ebonite pens that can be anodized.
 
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