I have been asked several times how I made the pen to get into PMG. I worked on it for several months. This was several years ago. The problem I kept having is the Resin eventually would pull away from the abalone. I tried several different ways with no luck. I finally had to make black resin dams for all 3 ends. This seemed to keep the resin from pulling away from the shell, maybe by keeping the air out. All this was before anyone seemed to be using Aluminite and the pressure pots. I got the shell in sheets from a bidding on e-bay. Unfortunatelly I must have bought them out, because I have not been able to get any since. I used different brands and types of oven baked clay. Using a pasta wheel I made it as thin a possible and wrapped it around the tube. Just glueing the shell to a painted black tube never seemed to give the pen a rich enough look for me. I had to put each peice on the tube one at a time gently pressing it into the sculpey. I tried it baked and unbaked and both ways it stilled pulled away from the resin without the black resin dams. Because I was making a close ended pen I first turned a piece of wood for that end and repeated the methoid for the brass tubes. at that time everyone had their own way of casting close ended pens so I will not go into that too much. I was lucky enough to find glass test tubes with the bottom having an opening that could be plugged, so when done alll I had to do is un plug and push the blank out. Aluminite shrinks less and finally an "easy " way of doing this pen. Of course now someone is making the blanks for one of the craft magazines so no one has to go through all of this hassel.
A whole new door is open though and I have been making several different patterns of sculpey cast in Aluminite. I like to make these and usually sell to women working great for a "purse" pen or a pen on a landyard for at work. The ideas are endless!!!
So here is the original pen and another one made of regular abalone, not red.
A whole new door is open though and I have been making several different patterns of sculpey cast in Aluminite. I like to make these and usually sell to women working great for a "purse" pen or a pen on a landyard for at work. The ideas are endless!!!
So here is the original pen and another one made of regular abalone, not red.
