With president's day I ended up having a 3 day weekend. I thought I'd get to crackin on this 8 custom pen request my wife brought home from work, plus another 4 pens I'd had prepped since last Wednesday. Well, out of the 12 possible pens, I could only find hardware for 8 of them (in my stash, and from a local supplier). I figured, 8...8's not bad...that'll be a great weekend, relaxing...productive...well, long story short, attached are 5 completed pens. Of the 3 not seen, this Gabon Ebony is killin me on a CA finish that I've already done twice:at-wits-end:. The other two are actually a matching pen/pencil slimline set with a home cast purple/white acrylic (translucent/mica powders). I think I need to figure out reverse painting...anyway..on to what you see here.
The pen laying in the front row is a slimline in platinum hardware with a custom cast purple/green/white acrylic. The problem for me with these slimlines is that even if the tube doesn't show through, I have to remove so much material (The customer is a woman and wanted a thin pen) to get the form factor right for her that it ruins the cool luminescence the pearlex powders lend to the acrylic when the density of the mica is right. She also requested the colors for the pen.
In the back row from left to right are 2 designer twists, a cuban, and a diva. As I'm still new to this hobby I'm spending a lot of time (and $$) experimenting with the different pens to see which I like to make best.
The green/white designer is in 24kt gold. This blank was a cast I did as an experiment about a month ago. I don't care much for the opaqueness of the pen as it ruins the depth you get with a Clear based acrylic, but I think the overall pen looks okay anyway.
The other designer is a purple/blue/white in satin hardware. I like this pen and will probably carry it for a few days just to see how I like the design in my pocket and hand.
The Cuban uses a copper hardware and a seashell crush blank I got with blank variety purchase I'd made a couple weeks back. I really like the way this pen turned out. you get some tube effect showing through the white pearl acrylic, but I was hoping for that anyway as I wanted the white to appear "aged".
The diva uses a custom cast silmar 41 with super copper and true blue powders. I went heavy on the powders so you get a lot of reflectivity and color in the material. I'm a huge fan of those two colors together and the resultant barrel is beautiful once it's all buffed out.
Wow...that was a lot of typing. Thanks for readin this far (even if you skimmed most of it ) and checkin out my pens.
C & C welcome and appreciated,
Joe
The pen laying in the front row is a slimline in platinum hardware with a custom cast purple/green/white acrylic. The problem for me with these slimlines is that even if the tube doesn't show through, I have to remove so much material (The customer is a woman and wanted a thin pen) to get the form factor right for her that it ruins the cool luminescence the pearlex powders lend to the acrylic when the density of the mica is right. She also requested the colors for the pen.
In the back row from left to right are 2 designer twists, a cuban, and a diva. As I'm still new to this hobby I'm spending a lot of time (and $$) experimenting with the different pens to see which I like to make best.
The green/white designer is in 24kt gold. This blank was a cast I did as an experiment about a month ago. I don't care much for the opaqueness of the pen as it ruins the depth you get with a Clear based acrylic, but I think the overall pen looks okay anyway.
The other designer is a purple/blue/white in satin hardware. I like this pen and will probably carry it for a few days just to see how I like the design in my pocket and hand.
The Cuban uses a copper hardware and a seashell crush blank I got with blank variety purchase I'd made a couple weeks back. I really like the way this pen turned out. you get some tube effect showing through the white pearl acrylic, but I was hoping for that anyway as I wanted the white to appear "aged".
The diva uses a custom cast silmar 41 with super copper and true blue powders. I went heavy on the powders so you get a lot of reflectivity and color in the material. I'm a huge fan of those two colors together and the resultant barrel is beautiful once it's all buffed out.
Wow...that was a lot of typing. Thanks for readin this far (even if you skimmed most of it ) and checkin out my pens.
C & C welcome and appreciated,
Joe