A friend of ours, who is going to Disney with us this August, is having a Birthday this month. So I decided that we would give her a pen and pencil set, with Maleficent (One of her favorite Disney characters) as the color scheme. This is a first in SEVERAL areas for me:

1. This is the first time I have done a SET.
2. This is the first time I have done a mechanical pencil.
3. I had to find a presentation box that would fit.
4. ...I have never given any of my work away as a gift.

I chose a basic gold slimline kit (x2) so that it would fit into the case that I found. I did more "hand" work on this because you want the shape to match each other. So I bumped them out so that they weren't "skinny" slim and then mic'd them to get the general diameter for each..

I was pleased with the outcome and so was she.

This is the second half of the blank that I used of the previous pen. While this is still a "Gatsby' Pen, this one has a twist transmission instead of the "Click." I had to work on it some because I really screwed up on the brass tubing; i.e. bent it, MULTIPLE applications of CA glue, etc. With a little TLC this turned out beautiful.

I finished my first Acrylic Pen today. It is a Red Swirl blank with a Gatsby click-style hardware kit. It is a bigger and meatier pen. The nice thing about it is that I only used HALF the blank so now I get to do another one with the same blank. My wife and I had a good laugh at the fact that when you cut into these blanks it releases a smell that is reminiscent of my wife's manicure shop ...and all of a sudden I have the munchies!

​If your interested in purchasing the pen or in seeing other works, click here.

So this morning after coming home from am routes, I decided to try out the new $14.00, Home Depot Special, combination mitre box and saw. I normally would wait until the weekend buuuuuut I had to walk through the garage and...it called to me.

A week ago a friend of mine gave me some extra blanks that he had and they have been sitting on my bench and today I decided to cut them up at a 45degree angle and just try to reconstruct a pen blank out of multiple wood. First thing I noticed right away, the plastic mitre box is NOT going to work for any kind of multiple pen assembly line and I just don't have the upper body strength for multiple pen attempts. Second, I tried to put it together with CA (superglue) and as it slipped in my hands I realized that I wasn't wearing gloves OR apron. My finger prints should return sometime in the next year and I now have a new pair of "painting pants. "

All this considered, I will need to buy a belt sander and fill in the gaps with CA but, the first attempt looks better than I thought it would.

 Im switching the line up now.After all the work I put into this blank on Sunday...it didn't make it. Sad to say but at least I just lost some time and a couple of dollars. Only lost a Sunday afternoon.

I am going to be using this area for the follow up on all my projects in the shop, it took me all day to get this all set up right and there are some areas that still need to be done, but for now, enjoy the videos on make the graphic buttons that got you here.

Enjoy
​...S

If your interested in following my cartoon work I am on You Tube here or you can find the rest of my work at kinnistudios.com.