# Theme and Variations



## Kaspar (May 11, 2012)

Some of you may remember this little number ...









... from a while back.  

Here's the same idea with ... pink.  Lots of Pink.  Very pink pink with some light pink.  It's an order for a friend, who is giving it to her sister.   Being a manly man, it's not something I would have done on my own, but I like how it turned out.







In a couple of weeks, I hope to have another variation on this theme.  

Thanks for looking!


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## crabcreekind (May 11, 2012)

WOWZER! That is pretty sweet, the design looks sweet! Not a huge fan of the sedona. I might have done a jr retro.


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## mredburn (May 11, 2012)

the Best of  Iap compititions are coming up you might want to save one for the compitiions.


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## Kaspar (May 11, 2012)

Oh?  The next one will be on a Jr Emperor.  I might save that one.


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## Ruby pen turning (May 11, 2012)

Very cool. I have seen that one before. I don`t know if the first one is yours but they both rock!


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## maxman400 (May 11, 2012)

Amazing work.


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## Justturnin (May 11, 2012)

How did you keep the resin from mixing when your poured these?..........Very nice.  I am really amazed by them.  I cant even see the kit, I cant take my eyes off the blanks.


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## boxerman (May 11, 2012)

Very nice pens looks like a lot time went into blanks.


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## D.Oliver (May 11, 2012)

Both of those pens are beautiful.  Brian, The top one is Kasper's too.  It was in the random pictures about a week ago.  It caught my eye then,  maybe that's where you saw it.  Of course I'm not exactly sure how the random pics works...whether or not the random pic are the same for me as they are for you.


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## EricJS (May 11, 2012)

Ruby pen turning said:


> Very cool. I have seen that one before. I don`t know if the first one is yours but they both rock!


 
If you've visited Arizona Silhouette, you've probably seen this pen. In fact, many of Eric's (Kaspar's) pens are featured on their web site. 

Eric, that's another beautiful piece of art! The craftsmanship is amazing.:biggrin:


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## chriselle (May 11, 2012)

.  .   .     .    I'm just going to sit here for awhile scratching my head trying to imagine how you did that.  Wow!


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## Kaspar (May 12, 2012)

I tallied it up this time, and it takes 20 hours to make this.  Except for the scallop pieces, each piece gets "dimensioned" in a thickness sander.  The glue ups are tricky, and the blank scallop cuts are trickiest of all.  Really, all that dimensioning ought to be done on a milling machine with a good angle vise.  Maybe one day.


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## mrburls (May 12, 2012)

Eric, it's good to see you making pens again. Your work is awesome. Looking forward to seeing the Jr. Emperor. 

Keith "mrburls"


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## beck3906 (May 12, 2012)

Really enjoy seeing your work.

Do you use the Byrnes tools to make these?


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## mikespenturningz (May 12, 2012)

I don't know how you do that but it is very nice. Thanks for posting that.


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## johncrane (May 12, 2012)

Awesome pen and work Eric!


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## Kaspar (May 12, 2012)

Thanks all!



mrburls said:


> Eric, it's good to see you making pens again. Your work is awesome. Looking forward to seeing the Jr. Emperor.
> 
> Keith "mrburls"



I've been making pens, but it was all basic stuff, and I didn't bother putting them up.  These are special though. 



beck3906 said:


> Really enjoy seeing your work.
> 
> Do you use the Byrnes tools to make these?




Yes.  The saw and the thickness sander.   There are some interesting things you can do with the precision disk sander too, but I haven't got around to those yet.  Never enough time.  

FWIW, if you have those machines, I find it's important to clean off and wax that saw table frequently.  On the thickness sander, I use those little cans of compressed air to blow the dust out of the sandpaper drum after each pass.  All the plastics are troublesome, but Lucite is especially bad.  Cutting and sanding it creates a lot of hard, messy, clingy, pellet-like dust that will clog up the works quickly.  Just enough to throw you off, especially on those 45 degree angle cuts.


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## wizard (May 12, 2012)

*Amazing!!*

Eric, You are unbelievable...That is an absolutely a beautiful piece of art !!!
Doc

Edit: I'm looking at it again and marvel at the planning involved in making that pen and you executed it flawlessly!!


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## Dustygoose (May 12, 2012)

This is the most labor intenseive pen I have ever seen.  The attention to detail is perfect.  Beautiful (even in pink)  I have a friend who just finished Chemo and she got the all clear from the Dr.  I'm thinking of making her a pen


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## rizaydog (May 12, 2012)

Amazing work.  They are both wonderful pens.


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## Gilrock (May 12, 2012)

Wow...that's my first time seeing either pen.  I don't always catch all the posts but it caught my eye in the Latest Photos section and I said...Holy smokes I gotta find out where those pens were posted.  Awesome work!


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## PenMan1 (May 12, 2012)

Now I know why you haven't been posting much. You've been WORKING....and man it's paying off! I didn't think there was much way to improve on your original. I was wrong!

Nicely done, amigo!


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## booney0717 (May 12, 2012)

All i can think to say is WOW! Oh yea and thanks, My daughter just walked in and wants me to do one for her. Dang i just started turning in Feburary!!!!!


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## Kaspar (May 12, 2012)

Zebra stripes with pink seems to be all the rage with the girls and ladies just now.


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## Dalecamino (May 12, 2012)

Yeh, these are really nice designs. Well executed work.


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## PR_Princess (May 15, 2012)

Outstanding work Eric (as always!!) :biggrin:

Not sure which version I like better...They are both simply amazing! You do have a masters touch! I cant wait to see what you come up with for the next variation. Will you post all three together?


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## jeff (May 15, 2012)

Looks great on the front page :biggrin:

It's been a couple years since that first one was the featured pen. This one deserves that spot as well. Eric, thanks for sharing some of your techniques as well.


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## Kaspar (May 15, 2012)

jeff said:


> Looks great on the front page :biggrin:



Thanks, and thanks again to everyone for the comments.  




PR_Princess said:


> Outstanding work Eric (as always!!) :biggrin:
> 
> Not sure which version I like better...They are both simply amazing! You  do have a masters touch! I cant wait to see what you come up with for  the next variation. Will you post all three together?



Sure.  I may hold the Emperor Junior in reserve for that contest, which if I remember right, means I can't post it right away, but once I can, I'll do that.


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## SDB777 (May 15, 2012)

Was wondering....what kind of time(hours/days) do you have in one of these?



Scott (awesome turningz) B


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## wizard (May 15, 2012)

Eric, Congratulations on the front page!!!:biggrin:..As I said you are amazing..I bought all the Byrnes machines...but LOL..it would take the rest of my life to master what you did with that pen. 
I just wanted you to know that I really admire your work and your exacting attention to detail!! It's an inspiration. Regards, Doc


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## Andrew_K99 (May 15, 2012)

Great job on the pens! Although, I think you lost you man card working on that pink one :tongue:

My head hurts from trying to figure out how many segments there are and how you might have done it. :hypnotized:


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## cnirenberg (May 15, 2012)

Eric,
I missed this.  I haven't a clue how though.  It is just stellar.  I'm not a fan of pink, BUT this design works fantastic.  I love the color combo and segmented variations it it.  What a great looking  pen.  PS congrats on the front page, it is well deserving.


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## Kaspar (May 15, 2012)

SDB777 said:


> Was wondering....what kind of time(hours/days) do you have in one of these?



I said 20 hours earlier in the thread, but there a few things I forgot to take into account so really, it was closer to 25 hours.   But I learned a couple of new tricks so such time is never wasted.  What was it GK Chesterton said?  "An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered."  



Andrew_K99 said:


> Great job on the pens! Although, I think you lost you man card working on that pink one :tongue:



That's okay.  I got paid enough to buy a new one.  



> My head hurts from trying to figure out how many segments there are and how you might have done it. :hypnotized:



If I remember right there's 72.   Let's see: the zebra blank is halved, and each half is quartered (8), 16 scallop pieces with 16 veneer pieces (32), eight straight line pieces with 2 veneers per (24), a veneer piece at each end of each pen section (4), an accent piece at each end of the pen (2), a thick veneer piece to match the thick black band on the Sedona cap finial (1), and a centerband piece (1): total = 72   It would be interesting to figure out how much, of all the blanks used, is left once the pen is turned down.  I suppose one could calculate it by weight.  My guess would be 2 or 3%, but I wouldn't be surprised to find it's less than 1%



cnirenberg said:


> It is just stellar.  I'm  not a fan of pink,



Thanks!  I'm not a fan of pink either.  I would never have done this, were it not a commission.  However, I do think it works pretty well.  I just wish we could have found a pink that was slightly more hot pink, and had some veining or pearlesence or some other "interest."  Maybe PR PRincess could make a hot-but not too hot- pink.

Thanks again everybody!


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## InvisibleMan (May 15, 2012)

Can't believe I missed this somehow!  Love, love, love it.  I'm amazed.

SWMBO will never see it.  No offense.  That's an "MBO" I'm just not willing to take on:biggrin:.


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## Toni (May 16, 2012)

Eric I love the pink.  Nice to see your work again I have missed it....


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## Parson (May 20, 2012)

I'm always inspired by your work, Eric. Thanks for sharing it.


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## Rojo22 (May 21, 2012)

What a wonderful use of segmentation!  The style and execution of the designs are absolutely beautiful!  Great job on both of them.


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## angboy (May 27, 2012)

Wow, amazing! Since becoming mroe of a fan of pink after being diagnosed with breast cancer, I can really appreciate this pen even more than usual.


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## biednick (May 27, 2012)

I understand exactly how you did this. I can not come close to replecatong it.


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## chugbug (Jun 2, 2012)

HI Kaspar-- that's just breath-taking!  Don't know what else to say.  My jaw is on the floor!  That must have taken weeks to prepare!

Can't wait to see the next one!!

JEB

JEB's PENs
www.jebspens.com
Hand-turned Pens / Pencils
Custom Fountain Pens


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## Kaspar (Jun 2, 2012)

Didn't want to be accused of self-serving thread necromancy, but now that someone else has bumped it, I'll take this opportunity to say thanks again to everyone.  

Just finished a customer order.  I start work on the next one this week.  It'll be the same thing, only different.


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