Cholla in a clicker

[budnder]

When I did my first cholla, I actually did two blanks, but one of them "bled out" - the allumilite found a hole or seam in the tape that I had used to wrap up the cholla and leaked out. The leak was midway up the cholla, so I ended up with "half a blank". I recall seeing someone who had segmented a little truquoise with a cholla, so thought I'd give that a go to make the blank big enough for one of Smitty's new clickers.

Before making the blanks, I thought I'd like this piece of cholla better, because it had bigger openings. The tradeoff was there was more hollowness in the center, and you can see where there are parts of the pent that have more of a "worthless wood" feel to them. I back painted white instead of red this time, based on my earlier pen, to give the red more pop.

For grins, I'll include a "loupe view" also. I never looked at my finish that close before, so wasn't sure what to expect, and not sure what I learned from having looked...

 

[Jim15]

Great looking pen.

 

[Edward Cypher]

Not sure of the Loupe view but it is cool. Nice pen, like the turquoise with the Red makes the whole pen pop. Nicely done.

 

[budnder]

Thanks.

Regarding the loupe.. I had heard that some collectors will take a loupe to a pen to examine the finish. I assume they're looking for scratches. I also had heard plenty of advise on the importance of sanding/buffing lengthwise to get rid of circular marks going around from the lathe cutting/sanding. So I just thought I'd take a look and see what they would be seeing.

At first glance, I thought I could see circular marks, but when I rubbed my finger over them lengthwise they became lengthwise marks... so what I was seeing was more oil, not scratches.

To me, the most interesting thing about the close up was the way the Allumilite penetrated the wood. I felt good about that because I know that's not gonna separate. My segment join (turquoise to wood) was also kinda interesting and I was happy with that also. I colored the epoxy with some turquoise mica, which turned out to be a good thing.

It was also interesting to see some "stuff" floating around in the Allumilite, which I suppose gives it some depth.