Feather pen

[Lew]

First, let me apologize for not being active here for a while. I had shoulder surgery (torn bicep tendon) and it's taken me a long time to recover. Be that as it may, I have a customer who wants a pen with white, fluffy feathers. She wears jewelry made of silver and gold made into feathers she wears as earrings and necklaces. I need some design help.

I had originally thought of casting a feather blank in a manner like the video shown on IAP on the subject. But that would not get me the fluffy feather effect I think she wants. I finally decided to make a pen such as a PSI executive twist pen and epoxy a feather into the end cap, giving the pen the look of a quill pen. She wants only a gel/rollerball type pen, though, so I'm not sure this kit would work for this application.

Any ideas for the type of kit I should use to get the effect I'm after? Any thoughts on the design idea for the pen? As always, thanks for the help.

 

[KenB259]

Check out the Apollo at Bullseye Turning. Since it's a closed end pen, you should be able to do any special treatment you want on the cap end.

 

[JohnU]

Sadly "fluffy" isn't much of an option when you mix feathers and resin, only because wet feathers aren't fluffy. You may get away with a very small feather flat and suspended in resin to sand below and above to get the thickness for a finial but you will probably want to paint the bottom side to allow the feather to be seen in its floating state. The problem you could run into is white feathers often get a bit transparent in resin and it may be hard to be seen. An option might be a white pen with waterslide decals of multi posed feathers around it, under a ca finish. Good luck! I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

 

[Woodchipper]

Watching this thread and posts for future reference.

 

[Lew]

Check out the Apollo at Bullseye Turning. Since it's a closed end pen, you should be able to do any special treatment you want on the cap end.

That looks like it should work ok.

 

[Lew]

Sadly "fluffy" isn't much of an option when you mix feathers and resin, only because wet feathers aren't fluffy. You may get away with a very small feather flat and suspended in resin to sand below and above to get the thickness for a finial but you will probably want to paint the bottom side to allow the feather to be seen in its floating state. The problem you could run into is white feathers often get a bit transparent in resin and it may be hard to be seen. An option might be a white pen with waterslide decals of multi posed feathers around it, under a ca finish. Good luck! I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

Your thoughts are almost exactly along the lines I was thinking. I just couldn't come up with a design that would show the fluffy feathers.