Hi,



Well it's great to find this forum and see some familiar faces/names. I have been off my feet for awhile, I had my hip replaced Sept 7 and have been reading a lot on the net lately. I have been reading this forum for a short while and see many of the directions I am interested in going being discussed here.

My focus on pen making lately has been to move away from the kit's and transition my penmaking to more custom like pens that have a unique appeal, that allow me to express new designs using quality materials.

This is just one of those pens, If you frequent other pen forum sites you might have seen it before, but at that risk I hope to also get some honest feedback on your thoughts on this pen.

It's made with alternative ivory with black onyx accents, the nib is 14k gold.





Again thanks for taking time to look.

Glad you are back up and around since your surgery! The pen looks nice. I like the way you have continued the rounded black theme to each end of the pen.

That is one sweet pen......can I have it?

I bet he'd sell it to you JD!! But after all the advertisement the Squid pen got from you, he might want to give you one!!!

So Jim what other pens have you been working on??? Inquiring minds want to know.

JD what's your address...LOL......



Well Perry I have actually been drawing our designs....rather than just taking the tools to materials and working away at a pen I have been drawing our my ideas on paper and thinking about going with a unique design that involves creating my own hardware, maybe borrowing the odd kit element but mostly moving in a direction that is not the same old same old.

I currently have had some work in an art gallery in my town now for a few moths, the owner has told me that most of the clients that buy my work are attracted to the non standard look of my pens, that creating one of a kind also attacts a certain demographic in the clients she has. I am not sure if I want to make pens for the One of a Kind client or make pens that have a standard design that I can recreate and sell with some degree of recognition. I'm at a cross roads, making kit pens is very boring, yet, I need the funds from them to take me on a new path.


So most of what I am looking at right now is on paper, in making them I can see that they will involve some lathe work, but also other processes and I hope is appealing to people, so my challenges now are to start prototyping and getting some pens made. This will take some time, but I am up for it!

That's one of my favorites of yours Jim!

Welcome!

By the way, what's that building in your avatar?

Hi Brian,

That is the Canadian War memorial at Vimy Ridge in France. The land was granted to Canada by France after WW I it soverign Canadian soil.

My grandfather fought at Vimy in April 1917 when after the British and French failed to take the ridge Canada won it, a huge battle in WW I.

The memorial has the names of 11,000 Canadian missing soldiers carvered into the base who died in France with no graves. One third of the 65,000 Canadians who died in WW I have no grave. The battle and the monument are a major source of Pride for Canada. They say we became a country on that Easter Day in 1917, it was the first time Canada fought as a unit not under the British, but under our own flag and command. Sorry for the history lesson..

That's one very nice shape Jim.

Have you read anything by Bill Jones on alternative ivory - he has some neat stuff (not pens) that might be of interest.

Cheers,
Ruaidhrí