egnald
Member
Greetings from Nebraska.
A little over two weeks ago I poured my first batch of long pen blanks in anticipation of Kate from Bullseye Turning getting some Stainless Steel Apollo kits back in inventory, but the wait finally got to me so I grabbed an Antique Brass Diamond Knurl Rollerball kit from Exotic Blanks and turned one of them. I have done enough vertical color casting to know that it is really hard to judge what they are going to look like turned by looking at the outside when they come out of the mold and I just couldn't wait any longer to find out.
I called the blanks Golgari which is the name of a guild in the Magic The Gathering game. It is represented by a combination of the colors black and green to represent a blend of undead and natural creatures - a balance between life and death, decay, and re-growth. For the pour I used Alumilite Clear Slow with Eye Candy pigments, 50% Ronin Black, 20% Gage Green, 15% Nori Green, and 15% Jade Green. I was a little worried since the resin was getting pretty thick before I got it all poured and into the pressure pot. There was one small void (bubble) in the blank that I turned, but it disappeared with just a single coat of GluBoost. I usually don't overload the resin with pigments as I like areas that still have some degree of translucency, so I painted the inside of the blank with green acrylic paint and also added a drop of it to the epoxy I used to glue the tubes in. I also removed the factory cabochon and replaced it with one made from a piece of the blank.
I really expected the turned blanks to have a lot more black since it was 50% of the resin - I was pleasantly surprised and I am completely satisfied with the result though. I'm thinking the green maybe would have looked better on an Antique Copper kit. Maybe next time.
Anyhow, here are the pictures. Unfortunately the depth in the translucent green areas just doesn't show up very well in the pics.
Dave
These were the blanks
And here is the pen
A little over two weeks ago I poured my first batch of long pen blanks in anticipation of Kate from Bullseye Turning getting some Stainless Steel Apollo kits back in inventory, but the wait finally got to me so I grabbed an Antique Brass Diamond Knurl Rollerball kit from Exotic Blanks and turned one of them. I have done enough vertical color casting to know that it is really hard to judge what they are going to look like turned by looking at the outside when they come out of the mold and I just couldn't wait any longer to find out.
I called the blanks Golgari which is the name of a guild in the Magic The Gathering game. It is represented by a combination of the colors black and green to represent a blend of undead and natural creatures - a balance between life and death, decay, and re-growth. For the pour I used Alumilite Clear Slow with Eye Candy pigments, 50% Ronin Black, 20% Gage Green, 15% Nori Green, and 15% Jade Green. I was a little worried since the resin was getting pretty thick before I got it all poured and into the pressure pot. There was one small void (bubble) in the blank that I turned, but it disappeared with just a single coat of GluBoost. I usually don't overload the resin with pigments as I like areas that still have some degree of translucency, so I painted the inside of the blank with green acrylic paint and also added a drop of it to the epoxy I used to glue the tubes in. I also removed the factory cabochon and replaced it with one made from a piece of the blank.
I really expected the turned blanks to have a lot more black since it was 50% of the resin - I was pleasantly surprised and I am completely satisfied with the result though. I'm thinking the green maybe would have looked better on an Antique Copper kit. Maybe next time.
Anyhow, here are the pictures. Unfortunately the depth in the translucent green areas just doesn't show up very well in the pics.
Dave
These were the blanks
And here is the pen
)
