Termite Trails in Turquoise

Playing with making pens from downed branches from the yard -

Old dead branches have some amazing textures and patterns but also seem to have a lot of voids - like a 100 years of bugs - often not apparent until starting to turn the blank

300 mesh copper powder was frustrating - even the thin penetrating CA would just ball up on the surface - found some 100-150 mesh copper and turquoise
The larger powder allows the CA to flow through the powder, so filling the voids and bug tracks becomes a relatively simple process.

The challenge is getting a good polish on the stone - which seems to work by partially hardening the wood as well with CA before polishing the material - wood and stone - with a polishing compound - then coating everything with CA for the CA finish.

Trying to polish the copper or turquoise without coating the wood darkens the wood with the polishing compound and looks dirty -

The shape was just having fun but actually feels nice writing - it just won't sit flat on the desk- actually tends to spin -

Nice. When I first read Termite Trails it didn't seem to grab my attention. When I saw the pen I really like the splash effect. Well done.

Very cool effect!

Wow, I'd never know that was FOG wood from the back yard.

sorcerertd said:

Wow, I'd never know that was FOG wood from the back yard.

Click to expand...

150+ year old Coastal Oak - not sure what causes all the swirled texture and low density - probably a function of bugs, fungus and decay but it made for several large dead branches that are really unusual and waiting to be sliced into potential pen blanks - the center is mostly gone but there's a good solid 1 1/2" shell that yields small useful pieces riddled with voids - so having an artistic "solution" to the voids makes them usable - often not apparent in the blank until drilling and starting to turn.

I really like to use limbs from trees, they tend to have a lot of character and variation in the grain patterns. Your pen looks really good.