Turned Pens, Bottle Stoppers, and Keychains

Here is another of the "What's he cooking up....??" type posts.

This past summer I was introduced to wood turning of the pen and bottle stopper variety. Since then, I've been making all kinds of pens, bottle stoppers, and most recently keychains. I put together a small website showing off the stuff that I have made and some suggested prices. This site only shows the pieces that I have made, I may update it soon with pictures of my Dad's pieces.

This all started when I visited the Rockler store with plans to buy a gift card for my father. They had a demo for the wood turning so I tried it out and made bottle stopper. Here is my first bottle stopper.

I then went back the next weekend and made a pen. I don't have a photo of that one to share, but I keep it on my desk at work. The following weekend I got my Dad to come up and try out turning too. He also had a great time with it.

My Dad had been talking about getting a lathe for a while now and after he made a few pens he was convinced that he should get one. For Father's Day, my Mom, brother and I went together and got him a lathe and lots of accessories.

We started turning all kinds of pens and stoppers out of wood of different types. There are endless varieties and they all look different when finished. Sometime this summer, I found of a local source for pen kits and such, Berea Hardwoods. It was there, where I found all kinds of interesting acrylic blocks for turning.

Each time I went to the Hardwoods store I found more interesting things to try. Recently, I picked up some keychains. They have regular keychains and also ones that have a whistle in them. I've only made a few keychains, but here is what they look like. One interesting note, the chrome key chain in the top middle is made out of a baked polymer clay that I mixed together. It is a black and orange swirl.

If you want to see the other pens and bottle stoppers that I've made, check out my website.

I hope this diversion from food posts was alright with my readers. I wanted to let those who know me personally see what I've really been up to when I say that I've been making pens.