Zen with a bite! Thank you Seamus!!!

[Brooks803]

First of all I need to throw another HUGE thank you to Seamus for saving my butt! Colors I can do, snakeskins....not so much, YET! I had an order for a rattlesnake zen and tried more times than I'd like to share without making a usable blank. Time was running short on delivery so I threw a hail mary to Seamus for help and man did he deliver! Cast over the weekend, mailed on Monday, here today and now on a pen for delivery this weekend. I used a Black Ti kit since it went well with the colors of the skin. Finished to 12000 MM and polished with PlastX. Thanks for looking and for any comments made. Thanks again Seamus!

Gotta show the closeup:

 

[EarlD]

Beautiful pen, Jonathan. Fit and finish look great, as usual. Your photography is really good. I'm not there yet with mine.
Earl

 

[seamus7227]

WOW!! THAT LOOKS FANTASTIC! Nice job Jonathon! photography looks good too

 

[Bobalu]

Another winner on both of your parts. I bet you were a little apprehensive as you neared finished diameter. Not a lot of extra meat on the Zen.

 

[JohnU]

Holy Snake skin!!! That turned out beautiful. Looks flawless from here. Nice work, both of you.

 

[hewunch]

great job! Nice collaboration.

 

[renowb]

That is awesome Jonathon! Fantastic work to all!

 

[Drstrangefart]

Excellent! This just gave my brain an idea-baby! Any thoughts on printing up snakeskin decals to cast with made to look like a white snakeskin, and cast over it with translucent? Seems like it could work out, and I imagine it would be awesome.

 

[BRobbins629]

Excellent! This just gave my brain an idea-baby! Any thoughts on printing up snakeskin decals to cast with made to look like a white snakeskin, and cast over it with translucent? Seems like it could work out, and I imagine it would be awesome.

About 4 years ago...
http://www.penturners.org/forum/showthread.php?t=26623&highlight=Fake+snake

 

[el_d]

Great Job guys.

Came out really nice.

 

[Drstrangefart]

Excellent! This just gave my brain an idea-baby! Any thoughts on printing up snakeskin decals to cast with made to look like a white snakeskin, and cast over it with translucent? Seems like it could work out, and I imagine it would be awesome.

About 4 years ago...
http://www.penturners.org/forum/showthread.php?t=26623&highlight=Fake+snake

Yup. That's the core of the idea. I was thinking (And as I'm not casting yet it's just that) of white with green translucent cast over it. Or you could do larger print, red translucent and call it a dragon.

 

[boxerman]

Fantastic pen.

 

[PaulDoug]

One of the best looking snake pens I have see!

 

[Brooks803]

Thanks Everyone! Seamus did all the hard work though, I just hit it with a sharp stick :tongue:

 

[corian king]

Beautiful pen!! Great work!

 

[BW Design Works]

Great looking pen Jonathan! If I may ask what were the troubles you were having trying to cast one? I have yet to try and cast anything let alone snakeskin, but I have a kit waiting for me to start. Just wondering what I should avoid when trying.

Thanks,

 

[workinforwood]

Excellent work!

 

[Brooks803]

Great looking pen Jonathan! If I may ask what were the troubles you were having trying to cast one? I have yet to try and cast anything let alone snakeskin, but I have a kit waiting for me to start. Just wondering what I should avoid when trying.

Thanks,

Each time I tried I made a different mistake, mainly because I got too focused on not repeating the previous one. One time I forgot to paint my tube prior to gluing the skin to the tube. Another time I didn't get a good glue seal and had air trappen between the tube and skin. Another I did everything right but had a couple bubbles in bad spots. The last time I had most of it right but made it all too thick and ended up turning into the skin and it was beyond a CA finish fix. I'm sure I'll find more ways to mess up, but for now I have a good backup system...named Seamus!

Thanks everyone for the kind words!