Gentlemen's Roller in Box Elder Burl

Gentlemen's Roller in Box Elder Burl
Originally uploaded by patrickdylan

I finished this one tonight. It's pretty similar to the first one I did in this style, but think it's a bit better overall.

Tortoise Shell Gentlemen's Fountain Pen

Tortoise Shell Gentlemen's Fountain Pen
Originally uploaded by patrickdylan

This is my first fountain pen. The body and cap are acrylic; the color is called tortoise shell. Can you guess who gets this one?

Cigar pens

Cigar pens
Originally uploaded by patrickdylan

Rosewood burl, and three acrylics (crushed shell, tortoise shell, and toucan). 1, 3, and 4 are for sale.

Gentlemen's Roller Ball with Box Elder Burl

Gentlemen's Roller Ball with Box Elder Burl
Originally uploaded by patrickdylan

My first screw cap... can you guess who snagged this one?

Jasper Fforde uses my pen for his booksigning!

On Wednesday night, my daughter and I went to the local booksigning by British author Jasper Fforde, well known internationally for his Thursday Next series of novels. (In fact I got my wife signed UK first editions of the whole series a while back because she's such a big fan) My wife had the great idea to take him one of my pens, and even volunteered her favorite acrylic cigar because she thought it went well with the cover art on his books. So off we go, pen in hand, and we get there to find that the place is packed with hundreds of people and all copies of the new book are sold. I grabbed an older paperback of his and we got in line.

When we got to the front my daughter hands him the pen, and says "my dad made this for you." He removes it from the sleeve and say "Wow! Brilliant!" (how british is that...) He then says "Monte Blanc... ppfffff!" and tosses aside his other pen. He used mine to sign all the books for the remainder of the line. He made sure to have my contact info so he would know who gave it to him.

To top things off, as we were leaving a salesperson found another box of the new books. So we grabbed one and got back at the end of the line! We got up to the front and I saw that he was still using my pen long after he thought we had left, which means he wasn't just being polite. He thanked us again as he signed the new book.

So... of course I forget to bring the camera to this event (doh!) but luckily the fan club president was there with her excellent camera, and she was kind enough to take some photos to send me. She did a great job, here's a photo of us with Jasper. (I blacked out my daughter because we don't post public pics of the kids online.)


And Jasper signing a book with my pen:


The FC president also mentioned that Jasper commented on how much he liked the pen, both the look and feel, so that's quite a complement coming from someone that has to use a pen for so long at one time.

Wall Street pens in various burls

Wall Street pens in various burls
Originally uploaded by patrickdylan

These are Wall street twist ballpoint pens in (left to right) rosewood burl, maple burl, and amboyna burl. I'm really happy with these and I think the finishing is top-notch.

These three will be available in the store soon. Enjoy!

Rhodium cigar pen in "Tangerine Ribbon" acrylic

Rhodium cigar pen in "Tangerine Ribbon" acrylic
Originally uploaded by patrickdylan

Rhodium cigar pen in "Polar Ice" acrylic

Rhodium cigar pen in "Polar Ice" acrylic
Originally uploaded by patrickdylan

One small shopping trip for man...

... one giant leap for our sanity.


The fridge is on.


and full of drinks.

Wall Street pen in Cocobolo

Wall Street pen in Cocobolo
Originally uploaded by patrickdylan

Wall Street pen in maple burl

Wall Street pen in maple burl
Originally uploaded by patrickdylan

New european twist pens

I wanted to add some European twist pens to my store, since they are elegant enough to look classy, yet easy to carry with you (unlike a massive desk pen). Their price point is good for the casual user, and it won't intimidate you from actually using the pen. These two will go in the store.

Leopardwood:



and Wenge:

Wenge twist pen with ash center band and european gold finial

Originally uploaded by patrickdylan

Here's a wenge version of the modified European twist concept. Again the band is ash, providing nice contrast.

Leopardwood twist pen with ash center band and european gold finial

Originally uploaded by patrickdylan

This is a modified version of the european twist pen. I turned a replacement center band from ash, therefore adding flexibility to the shape. The wood is leopardwood with a multi-coat CA/BLO finish, then buffed.

New fridge

sub-zero pro-48
Originally uploaded by patrickdylan

Ok, I know this is not woodturning related, but good lord... look at our new fridge! Sweet.

New tools!

I recently got a set of hollowing tools from the Monster Tool Company, run by Randy Privett. Here you can read a funny story about how he started making hollowing tools for turning. Like a lot of other tool makers, he started by making tools for himself, but how he started selling them is pretty interesting. His quality and customer service are top-notch, and when you ask a question you get an answer from him, not some receptionist or customer service rep.

I got the "system II" and tried it out the other night with a side-grain shallow cherry hollowform. This is rough-turned and is now drying, awaiting its final turning and finishing. It was my first experience with this type of tool, and it's very different than any other I've used, but everything went pretty well. Well, at least until I shot my second piece off the shop wall after a good catch!

Pens are now in the store

I've made available 2 slimline pens and one cigar pen in the store.

Cigar pens

I tried a new pen type yesterday. It's called the "Cigar Pen" because it's one of the thickest out there. It's pleasantly heavy and balanced well, and definitely thick (great if you like that). Here are two, in bubinga (left) and zebrawood (right). Of course my wife claimed the bubinga one.

Store update

I've added another item to my store. I'm going to be adding some pens in the next week or two as well so stay tuned!

First sale!

Yesterday I made my very first official sale. I sold a nostepinne from my store to someone I've never met. I shipped it today. What a great feeling when someone else values your hard work enough to buy your products! I hope she enjoys it as much as I enjoyed making it. Here's hoping for many more happy customers.

Magnolia bowl available in the store

The magnolia bowl I shared yesterday is now available in my store, along with two other bowls and two nostepinnes.

Magnolia and Mulberry bowls

I buffed the two bowls I turned yesterday... one mulberry (7.5"):





and one magnolia (8.5"). Anybody see the happy face in the magnolia? My lovely wife spotted that first.

Back to turning

Turning time has been scarce this week with the kitchen remodeling. (You can see progress photos here.) I managed to do some this morning, and I finish-turned and oiled a magnolia bowl and a mulberry bowl. The mulberry was rather unattractive as a rough-turned blank but came out looking good. I'll buff them later this week. I also cut 6 new blanks (4 box elder and 2 cherry) from logs that were waiting for me out back. I'll rough and soak them this week. I think I'll do some more pens this week too because I'd like to add some to the new store.

I've got an awesome new tool coming soon in the mail... but I won't let the cat out of the bag yet. Just wait! You'll see....

Web presence

I've made some updates to my web presence lately. I mentioned the new gallery already, and today I revamped my portfolio site. It directs viewers to the gallery, this blog, or the new store at flaminglotus.etsy.com. I was selling items directly through the portfolio site, but I believe that my for-sale items will get more traffic on etsy. For those unfamiliar, etsy is a great site that enables people to sell anything handmade that they created themselves. There's a TON of great stuff on there. Have a look at the store, and watch for additional items that will be added to the store in the near future.

New gallery

I've started playing with Flickr, and realized they have a great slideshow interface that even gives the title and description overlaying the photo in a transparent box (click the big "i" in the middle of the photo). The other nice thing about Flickr is that you can make comments directly on a photo. I've setup a gallery of my work using Flickr, and you can see it here.

Box Elder Bowl, 8"

Here's a second box elder bowl I completed last night. This one is slightly larger, and the red inclusions in this piece look a bit like tiger stripes, or maybe even claw marks.

Box Elder Bowl, 7"

Here's a box elder bowl I finished last night. The rim has two burned lines to add interest to the shape.

For those who don't know...

Here's Libby, the (195 lb) latest addition to our family!