I struck a deal with a friend of mine here in town – I’ve got custom boxes! I’m very excited about this. This one is mine – just a rough prototype – but hopefully you’ll get an idea. We’re also going to put a notch in the top of the boxes to use as a desk or display stand. Did I mention that I’m very excited!? 🙂
Okay, so it may seem odd to be excited about a box but hear me out. There’s something really awesome about seeing something you have worked really hard on being completely finished and wrapped up in a bow. Literally! Packaging them in these custom boxes which have been made especially for me is so satisfying. You can contact the company linked here if you want to discuss a custom packaging design for your product.
These will also be available for sale, with a wrap, if you want one for your Newton Pen that you bought a while back, or if you just want one. We’re going to work out prices soon.
And check out these beautiful pen wraps my wife made! 🙂
It’s that time again – and here’s the newest pen for the . It’s made from Golden Brown acrylic, and comes with a #8, 18k gold nib. Full disclosure – I’m going to take the cost of the nib out of the money collected on this . The nib is $175. If you win, and you don’t want this particular pen, I’ll make another pen with a #8 nib, whatever material I have as long as it’s big enough, c/c filler. I know this brown isn’t for everybody. 🙂
Remember – if you win – you can pick your pen – either with or without this nib.Â
One person has suggested to let the winner pick whether they use the gold nib or steel nib – so that way more money can go towards the scholarship.  Sounds good to me.  🙂Â
And another person just suggested to me to make it an option that the winner could buy a gold nib, either the #8 or a #6, so that all the money can go towards the scholarship! Also a great idea! I’ll leave that up to the winner and will keep their choice private. Thanks everybody!
The #8 nibs come in fine, medium, and broad. I’ll do any grind you like at no extra charge.
So if all that sounds good then you can buy as many as you want payable through paypal to newtonpensscholarships@gmail.com. Be sure not to send payment to my other email address.
If you have any questions at all please contact me at [email protected], or ask here in the comments section. Please be sure to send payment to the correct address or it may get lost.
ends 9pm central US time, Friday August 16, 2013. Not tax deductible.
And I FINALLY got a copy of the graduation video where I present two kids with the first scholarships – and here it is! 🙂
I’m so glad you can’t see my hands shaking. 🙂
Remember – if you win – you can pick your pen – either with or without this nib.
One person has suggested to let the winner pick whether they use the gold nib or steel nib – so that way more money can go towards the scholarship.  Sounds good to me.  🙂
Finally made a pen to take the #8 nib. It’s big. I should be able to offer this nib in the medium sizes up to the larger size pens. I’ll have to make a medium to be sure it will fit, not sure yet. These nibs are $175.
The pen is also a new Jumbo size. Available in any of the styles, or any customized design you can come up with.  Starting at $250 with a #6 steel nib. Limited material choice with this size as most blanks won’t be big enough to make a cap.
Hi Pen Peeps!
I’ve been using these schedule 40 PVC tubes to ship my pens in since they’re pretty much indestructible. You could run one of these over with a truck and it would be fine. In fact, I rolled my new metal lathe into the shop on several cut up pieces of PVC and they all did fine. That’s over 1000 pounds rolling along on just a few pieces of plastic.
Since my awesome wife started making pen wraps your pens have been shipped in a wrap inside these PVC tubes. So my presentation is getting better.
The other day I had a thought – wrap the PVC!
So I did and it helps presentation even more. It’s not as nice as a clam shell pen box, but it’s something I can afford. And it’s STRONG. 🙂 I’ll change the image up every now and then, too.
I’ve got a proper logo developed thanks to some help from one of my fantastic customers.
This is the image that will go on my nibs from now on. 🙂
Â
I’ve also added a new page under the Gallery link in the toolbar above that takes you directly to Customizations. Here you can see pens that have had banding added, engravings, or sides shaped.
Engraving! Â This is my first piece, practice, but it was so much fun! Â Can’t wait to do more.
This is from a picture of a bonsai tree I found on the net.
I used a couple of different types of burins from my wood engraving toolbox to do this.
The process is pretty straight forward – it’s very much like wood block carving, or engraving – both relief printmaking processes – which have been a major passion of mine for about 7 years.
see my old printmaking site – Coffee Grinder Press
Here is a picture of the burins I used. I draw a picture on a piece of paper, do a graphite transfer, then carve over the lines with the burins.
#9 got it! Congrats! And thanks to everybody SO MUCH for participating. This scholarship is set to reach more kids than the first. Hopefully every year I’ll be able to continue increasing the number of people helped with this money.
Sometimes when making your pens I goof up a bit. And by a bit I mean that I have to start ALL THE WAY OVER. 😀 It makes for good practice, even if it’s sometimes quite frustrating. Here are a few examples of my goofs recently.
First, a group shot. The yellow one in the middle is probably the 5th or 6th pen I ever made a year and a half ago. I’ve come a long way. 🙂 I use it now for inking and testing my #6 nibs.
The black ebonite barrel in the back? What could be wrong with that? How bout this…
While cutting the threads something went awry (I fixed it for the next barrel I made) and the thread cutting tool GOUGED into the barrel hard. In hindsight I should have just trimmed the barrel back a bit and extended the threads farther up the barrel, but it was late and I was tired, so I cut the barrel off and started over. 🙂 It’s okay, the new one is better.
Yeah, super goof. I drilled the barrel out, threaded and shaped the barrel, and cut it away from the rest of the blank. The problem? I cut too close to the hole, and when shaping, I noticed how incredibly thin the end of the barrel was. So I took a drill bit and shoved it through all the way, breaking the end away as you see in the picture above. The end was so thin I could push it in with my thumb nail. Now it serves as the tester pen for my #5 nibs. 🙂
And a picture of the replacement barrel, after some shaping. Â Â
I’m creating a new page that I’ll update as often as I upload pics of pens. It’s going to be a page where you can go to see the last 10 or so pens I’ve made.
There will be a link in the black toolbar near the top of the page, just under the giant title image.
 
