SteveJ
Member
For the TLDR crowd - scroll to the bottom for a one sentence recap!
Last week I drove my daughter from our home in western Colorado to Cleveland Ohio so she can begin her master's program in bass performance there. Two 14 hour days of driving. Scheduled to fly back home on Saturday, leaving her with her car. As i was leaving fro the airport, I got a call from the airline that the flight was cancelled. Next available flight was 32 hours later.
Yahoo, another day and a half with my girl. Only she has stuff she needs to do - specifically practice for 3 hours both Saturday and Sunday. What to do?
Check if anyone from the IAP lives close-by.
Turns out I was about 10 minutes from the home of our illustrious leader, hidden away in a non-descript neighborhood in west Cleveland. A quick phone call and I secured an invitation to spend a few minutes with him. My wife says "REALLY???? You call some guy you met on the internet and went to his house???? He could be a serial killer - or a naked pen turner for all you know."
As far as I know he isn't a serial killer and he definitely wasn't naked and standing in front of a lather (try to wipe that mental image from your mind).
Turns out Jeff is just a really nice guy, with an open door and a nice shop. Had a nice visit and saw a shop much neater than mine has been in years. Thanks Jeff for visiting with me.
Oh, and he suggested that perhaps, if I had time, I could drive about 20 minutes south to the home of one Mark James, the guy who is holding the IAP collection - I was assured that if I could connect with him, Mark would enjoy showing me the collection and talk about his chevron work.
So, I was able to connect, drive the 30 minutes and spend a couple of hours with Mark. He has a fantastic shop/house (as far as I could tell he had pen turning stuff in almost every room of the house, the sun room, the pool room, the kitchen, the dining room, the basement shop, and the garage. He has one cool set-up.
The IAP collection is pretty awesome. Congratulations to those of you who have pens included in it. If you have an opportunity to see it, you should take it. The pictures don't really do justice to the joy of actually holding the pens in your hand.
Mark is gracious and generous with both his time and his knowledge. He showed me what he is doing to create his well designed chevron pens. I was introduced to a few tricks I hadn't thought of - it was worth the time.
So I got home and had to explain that yes, I actually went to the home of two different people I met on the internet - and made it out alive. It was a great way to spend some extra time when stuck in Cleveland.
TLDR: I got to see Jeff Brown and Mark James when stuck in Cleveland, had a great time and got to see the IAP Collection.
Last week I drove my daughter from our home in western Colorado to Cleveland Ohio so she can begin her master's program in bass performance there. Two 14 hour days of driving. Scheduled to fly back home on Saturday, leaving her with her car. As i was leaving fro the airport, I got a call from the airline that the flight was cancelled. Next available flight was 32 hours later.
Yahoo, another day and a half with my girl. Only she has stuff she needs to do - specifically practice for 3 hours both Saturday and Sunday. What to do?
Check if anyone from the IAP lives close-by.
Turns out I was about 10 minutes from the home of our illustrious leader, hidden away in a non-descript neighborhood in west Cleveland. A quick phone call and I secured an invitation to spend a few minutes with him. My wife says "REALLY???? You call some guy you met on the internet and went to his house???? He could be a serial killer - or a naked pen turner for all you know."
As far as I know he isn't a serial killer and he definitely wasn't naked and standing in front of a lather (try to wipe that mental image from your mind).
Turns out Jeff is just a really nice guy, with an open door and a nice shop. Had a nice visit and saw a shop much neater than mine has been in years. Thanks Jeff for visiting with me.
Oh, and he suggested that perhaps, if I had time, I could drive about 20 minutes south to the home of one Mark James, the guy who is holding the IAP collection - I was assured that if I could connect with him, Mark would enjoy showing me the collection and talk about his chevron work.
So, I was able to connect, drive the 30 minutes and spend a couple of hours with Mark. He has a fantastic shop/house (as far as I could tell he had pen turning stuff in almost every room of the house, the sun room, the pool room, the kitchen, the dining room, the basement shop, and the garage. He has one cool set-up.
The IAP collection is pretty awesome. Congratulations to those of you who have pens included in it. If you have an opportunity to see it, you should take it. The pictures don't really do justice to the joy of actually holding the pens in your hand.
Mark is gracious and generous with both his time and his knowledge. He showed me what he is doing to create his well designed chevron pens. I was introduced to a few tricks I hadn't thought of - it was worth the time.
So I got home and had to explain that yes, I actually went to the home of two different people I met on the internet - and made it out alive. It was a great way to spend some extra time when stuck in Cleveland.
TLDR: I got to see Jeff Brown and Mark James when stuck in Cleveland, had a great time and got to see the IAP Collection.
