French Gothic CCC

[Ed McDonnell]

Another Cast Carved Core prototype. This time on a Jr rollerball. The design is inspired by French Gothic work from the middle ages.

I continue to refine my process. Black resin core carved, with the carved area filled with an acrylic metal paste that I applied and textured.

Why a texture in the carving? The glass smooth final coat removes any tactile evidence of the carving and I don't want things to look like the design was printed on the pen. I want the fact that it is carved to be obvious so I'm using partial fill / texturing of the carved area to accomplish this. The picture doesn't really show the dimensionality of the effect and is a poor substitute for actually holding the pen. At the normal observing distance with pen in hand, I'm really happy with how it looks. Particularly as the pen moves and the light plays off the textured fill in the carving. I think I'm getting closer to what I ultimately want. Still need to work on making the texture a little more robust so it survives the remainder of the process unscathed.

Ed

 

[cnirenberg]

That's a beauty.

 

[Robert111]

Beautiful pen! Thanks for sharing your work with us. Keep the pictures coming.

 

[D.Oliver]

Looks great Ed. Any way we could get a close up of one of those diamond shaped patterns. I'd love to see the detail in them.

 

[chriselle]

Nice....I think,, from back here in the cheap seats... Bust out the macro lens..let's get up close and personal.:wink:

 

[65GTMustang]

AMAZING! - I really like it

 

[Ed McDonnell]

Thanks everyone. Combining the two shots into one picture at my normal online resolution really does lose a lot of the detail. Sorry about that.

I'll give it a shot with my macro lens later today. Between a macro shot and the pixel peeping magnification capabilities of online viewing it might be like examining the pen with your belomo 10x....maybe 20x...or maybe an electron microscope!

Not everything looks better bigger....wonder what the results will be in this case? Only one way to find out!

I'm getting ready to do an upgrade to my DOL to increase the precision for this tiny work (waiting for parts....and waiting...and waiting). I orginally designed the DOL to carve on 14" diameter vases and bowls. These small pens and my super detailed artwork are really pushing the limits of my current machine design. I hadn't thought about having some good macro shots to compare the before and after upgrade performance. Thanks for the suggestion.

Ed

 

[johncrane]

Well done looks real good.

 

[leehljp]

You keep making me jealous!

Would you mind having an apprentice? :biggrin:

 

[Ed McDonnell]

OK - Here's an "in your face" macro shot of one of the design elements. Didn't fuss with the camera setup, just shot it. To give you a sense of scale, it's about 5/8" across the total design at its widest point.

Most of the speckles are dust. Between the time I wipe it down, set it down, frame it, focus and shoot (8 second exposure with very indirect lighting to try and minimize glare which was only slightly successful) it just sucked new dust out of the air. But some of the speckles are little flakes of metal. I use vacuum when I'm casting and it caused a few flakes to migrate out of the carving for the clear cast. Not really visible to the naked eye when using the pen, but if you look close you can see them here and there when they catch the light. Could be an interesting effect, but I want better control over the process so that they won't be there when I don't want them there.

I'm going to try some additional binders in between the color fill and clear cast on the next run.

With the upgrade I'm planning to my DOL I should be able to do even more detailed designs. At least that is the plan.

Ed

 

[gbpens]

Beautiful pen and pattern. What makes the metal paste adhere to the core? The rough surface of the carving?

 

[Ed McDonnell]

Beautiful pen and pattern. What makes the metal paste adhere to the core? The rough surface of the carving?

Hi gbpens - The carving actually has a relatively smooth surface. The acrylic binder I use to make the metal paste is what is doing the initial adhesion. Think of acrylic binder as an acrylic paint with no pigments / colors in it. Painters use it as a base to make their own custom specialty paints, usually for more textured work.

When I cast the colored carved core in clear resin, the clear resin then locks everything in place.


Ed

 

[Rangertrek]

Exceptional work! You appear to be taking pen making to another level.

 

[76winger]

That's a really nice pattern, I love it!

 

[mikespenturningz]

That is a beautiful pen...