Floral Pens~Polymer Clay

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Uh..... WOW!!!! Toni you have set the bar quite high!!

Those are amazing.

Welcome to our little (BIG) family and I look forward to more jaw dropping work from you. :smile-big::smile-big:

How do you do that??
 
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I looked at your Etsy last week after reading your reply to someone's question. I was amazed then and am once again. Like others have said, you may be selling yourself short on price. Fantastic work!
 
Hi Toni,
I have to agree with all of the above, WOW!!! Showed my wife the pics and her response was Oh WOW those are beautiful! She never says that for non wood pens not even mine so you got the ultimate complement! If you were about 8 or 9 thousand miles closer I'd be banging on the door asking for lessons. Hope to see many more.
Oh and welcome to the fun.
 
Woke up 2 hours ago and was just floored by the response in regards to my pens!! Thank you everyone so much for your praise. I have responded to most of you that asked questions, if I missed you please feel free to message me.

I do not have a laythe. Had to find out what LOML stood for, nice way to refer to your better half!!

Leap~THANK YOU FOR THAT COMPLEMENT!! With any luck(fingers crossed) we hope to be moving back home this year, hopefully the east coast so you never know!! Thank you for the welcome, everyone has been so wonderful on here!!

David~Guess you will have to buy a pen or blanks to make her happy!!

Snyiper~It has been suggested that I do a tutorial, problem that I have is you would either have to buy premade canes or make your own.. Do people pay for tutorials?

My big question~ please dont laugh.....Blanks?? are they referred to as the finished metal barrels?? OMG please dont laugh.. I thought Blanks where what wood turners use, a square piece of wood that you turn..

As for pricing....please feel free to offer any suggestions you have..If you want to purchase any pens in my etsy shop better do it now before I change the price..LOL

Thank you again EVERYONE!!
 
Ha Ha ha ha Ha Ha! :biggrin::biggrin::biggrin::tongue: Blanks.....you crazy polymer people!:eek:

You know me:devil:...I just had to do it. Toni you blank answer is correct. Look in the classifieds on the IAP and you will see many members who offer blanks for sale. In your case it would be the finished metal tube since there is no turning needed.

Now you have to work on the tutorials...rock star!!!!
 
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AWESOME work!

And I'm sure many of us would be happy to buy either "blanks" or "canes" from you, depending upon how you want to market them.

Perhaps a tutorial on how to make pen blanks out of the canes and PC would open a whole new market for your canes.

Thanks for sharing!
 
KEITH!!!

You know I was just in the middle of emailing you!!! glad you got the opportunity to tease me:giggle:

You would be the Rock Star!! I am just a caner.

So you tell me how much for my pens?? let me have your two cents.

email on its way!! Hugs!!
 
I would love to sell both!! Sounds like fun to me, as I just love to make them!!

What benefit would the members on here get from purchasing the blanks? curious? why not just buy a pen? more dumb questions:confused:

Yes I will work on a tutorial..
 
Well if we bought the canes we could say we made the pen!!! lol Many of us will do little subtle things to change a pen design to make it ours. Tutorials I guess could be paid for but everyone here tries to teach things they know for the betterment of the IAP community. If you look in our own library you will see gifted people as yourself writing on "how to do certain things" for the sole reason to teach others their way or a new trick. That is what makes this site so wonderful.
 
Toni said:
I would love to sell both!! Sounds like fun to me, as I just love to make them!!

What benefit would the members on here get from purchasing the blanks? curious? why not just buy a pen? more dumb questions:confused:

Yes I will work on a tutorial..
Click to expand...

Okay there are two ways I see this happening.

1) You sell the canes and show us how to make them on our own. Many will like this as they will still have creative license and it will follow into the show markets easier (some shows only allow products the seller made themselves and I would have a problem claiming a finished blank as mine in this case).

2) similar to Keith's baseball blanks, you would sell a "finished" blank that the purchaser would just need to assemble. Less creative license on the end user.
 
And, by selling the canes and offering a tutorial on how to adapt them to use on a pen or blank, you open your market to sales for a wide variety of pen models, perhaps far many more than you would be interested in stocking as pre-made blanks.

Thdere are many folks on this site, as has been mentioned, who love to work "outside the box" in terms of adapting things along their own creative lines.
 
Toni,
Just bought 3 of your pens on Esty because I have to see these up close! you only have 2 left for sale. now is the time to raise your prices a bit..:wink: I would also be in the market to buy some PC wrapped tubes from you when available. Any chance you could make tie dye ones too?


Thanks,
Dan
Burlieve it or Knot
 
Dan you nearly cleaned me out!! :biggrin: My favorite one is the only flower one left.

As for the tutorial, I have no problem sharing it on this forum!! but I can still sell it on Etsy:biggrin: for those who arent on IAP. It would be a tutorial on using canes already made. Makes alot of sense now!! thank you.

I will need to purchase blanks.....I was asked by a woodturner a while ago if he sent me blanks would I work my magic with them, but he never sent them...What would be the most popular blanks to cover?

Thank you everyone for your help
 

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Toni;
When I first saw your prices on Etsy I though much too low...then again you are putting your work on slimline pens with are the lower end of the spectrum. I'd put your talents on larger pen kits that would show off even more of your beautiful wrk and get you more ca$hola. Zen pens, Jr gents, clickers,etc. Your slims on etsy should be around $35 i would think.
 
greggas,

I have never even herd of those pens!!

I do know slimelines are at the low end of the pen spectrum, but they do sell and the pens that I have 1 left of were the first pens kits I have ever bought. Before them I was just covering bic pens..LOL

Where do you purchase just the pen blanks, when I look on a few websites I keep finding other things? maybe I am not searching using the correct name.

Hugs
 
Toni,

Don't worry about the buying blanks part. Just wrap your tubes and do what you do. Covering wood with polymer is a nightmare:mad:!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think the best thing would be to offer the canes and show people how to wrap a tube and apply the slices. There is a true art to caning and you have it down pat. It would take a long time and lot's of frustration for any of us to get to that level when caning.

I'll try to catch you over in the chat room one day....to harrass you that is!:wink:
 
Hi Toni,
Your finished pens are really great. Best PC pens I've seen. I thought I would help you with some of the terms. "Blanks" refers to the wood, or acrylic pieces that are turned to make a pen. "Tube" refers to the brass tube that is glued inside the blank, and is designed to hold all the mechanical parts of the pen secure. If you decide to make some finished blanks (already mounted on tubes) to sell, I would gladly donate some Sierra style tubes (only need 1 tube per pen). I have 2 or 3 dozen I could send you. Maybe trade for 1 finished blank?
Tom
 
These are quite stunning! I, too, would be curious to know how, exactly, this is done. I guessing you form the clay around the barrels and then cure and paint them? I don't really know anything about PC, but I am still looking for a way to put this on a pen and this method might be a part (or all) of that.
 
poly tutarial

looking forward to your tutaril as your pens are realy good (hope that I can lurn how to do them .
----------------------------Brian------------------------------
--------------please keep me in your loop--------------------------:bananen_smilies068::bananen_smilies104::bananen_smilies051::RockOn::bananen_smilies026::bananen_smilies046:
 
Padre said:
This might help explain it a little bit.
Click to expand...

Thank you for that, very much, but I kind of get the clay aspect of it. Let me be more specific: in penturning there is always the matter of getting it around a tube. Do you make a blank that you can drill and tube, or do you form the clay around the tube? Do you do that, whatever that is, before or after curing/baking/hardening?

Or do you do a wrap-around after you've put the pattern on? Do you paint the flowers (or whatever) on? When do you do that?

Can you put a CA finish on it, or even cast it in PR?

If it comes to painting, it'll still be a matter of how much talent you have for that.

Stuff like that is what I am asking. How is it done in relation to pen turning?
 
Toni;

I buy most of my kits from Craft Supply USA

Toni said:
greggas,

I have never even herd of those pens!!

I do know slimelines are at the low end of the pen spectrum, but they do sell and the pens that I have 1 left of were the first pens kits I have ever bought. Before them I was just covering bic pens..LOL

Where do you purchase just the pen blanks, when I look on a few websites I keep finding other things? maybe I am not searching using the correct name.

Hugs
Click to expand...
 
Simply Awesome...I've seen canes at Hobby Lobby and wondered how they made them. I looked at your etsy site and the flowers and butterflies gave me an idea. if you can make them larger then 1/2" say 1" to 1 1/2" they could be cast in clear PR for bottle stopper blanks.

Future floor polish huh. Did you spend any time in the military? In my younger years we would use Future on the heals and toes of our jump boots to get a high gloss shine. It was alot eaiserr then spit shining them.......
 
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Toni, welcome to IAP. Very nice to see your work here. Awesome! There are many articles in the library here. Browse through and you'll find the penturners here don't just use wood.

Maybe you might consider making blanks short of the bushings and then cast in resin to sell to those of us who don't manage to get PC looking so well.
 
Do you make a blank that you can drill and tube, or do you form the clay around the tube? Do you do that, whatever that is, before or after curing/baking/hardening?

Or do you do a wrap-around after you've put the pattern on? Do you paint the flowers (or whatever) on? When do you do that?

Can you put a CA finish on it, or even cast it in PR?

If it comes to painting, it'll still be a matter of how much talent you have for that.

Stuff like that is what I am asking. How is it done in relation to pen turning?
Click to expand...

Kaspar there is no easy answer to your questions, but let's see if we can help some.

Most polymer clay artists wrap the tubes with the uncured clay. Penturners that use clay are more apt to make a "sausage" and drill. So it depends on where you started.

As for painting there is none on Toni's pens. Those are all hand-built canes that are applied to the tubes. First you wrap the tube with a neutral color or a background color. Then you apply thin slices of the canes you want to use. A cane can be very simple or very detailed like Toni's canes. All of this is done before baking. Once the cane slices are laminated to the background color the blank is carefully smoothed so there are no transition lines due to the slices. The tubes are finished to size, then baked, wet sanded, and finished.

You can CA polymer clay, but most polymer artist aren't familar with this technique due to the fact they aren't using a lathe. Polymer clay is usually finished with a clear coat of some sort (floor polish, water based polyurethane, etc.)and buffed.

I hope this helped! Toni can jump in and correct me on some of the details as I know she will (and will enjoy):wink:!
 
Kaspar,

I have successfully wrapped a tube, baked, sanded and finished with CA...came out great, but nowhere near the detail you get from using canes, and Toni's are stunning among canes I have seen available.
 
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Toni,

I first saw your pens on the polymer pen making site but never complimented you on them, they are fantastic! I also checked out your etsy site, the detail in your work is amazing. You are going to inspire quite a few to give clay a try. Stores everywhere that sell clay are going to be running out!
 
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