You made those? WOW,they're top notch!

Darleen-Those are beautiful! I have seen those pens before and thought it would be fun to do.The design and colors in last 2 in the second picture looks like the handles on a pocket knife that I gave my DGS for his birthday.I bought them several years ago in a set of 10 I think and thought they were so unusual.I don't think they are wood though but some kind of stone.Again,those are really nice.Love all the different colors and designs.

Those are beautiful!

How do you do that? If it's wood, how do you get the colors like that?

I would love to know as I think that's something I would enjoy doing.

Magic az, Lillie, You could do that. They are surprisingly easy!! The wood that is different stripped colors(yes it is wood) is called laminated wood. You buy the wood like that(comes in blocks). What they do is they press different kinds of wood together and glue it, heat seal it someway, then dye the wood. We buy the blocks of wood, then turn them on a lathe. We buy the pen kits and make the pen. We also make the bracelet helper you can see that in the picture. Helps you put on your bracelet by yourself. (it is the long pen looking thing that has a clip on end) The ladies loved that at Christmas. Also you will see the red and black ones have an emblem on them. My husband has friends in the fire department so he made them all a pen for Christmas.(no, he does not work for fire dept. just nice LOL) Also the green striped ones on the right, next to the fire department pens, you can see there is a deer head on them..You can't see it very well, but he gave them away to his hunting buddies. I made ones for our choir directors and piano and organist, that had a treble cleff on the pen. I made some with crosses, yarn and crochet hooks. Can't remember all right now. These you see here are the ones we had left over after we sold at the Big Apple Crafts festival. We sold over 275 pens in one day. We didn't go back the next day as we had not signed up for it. We didn't they would sell all that good but they did. We are giving away these pens for next year. LOL We are on to other things now.. I am making wooden bowls, goblets, one vase. (I am still doing the lathe) But dh is not. My husband is making bookcases, tables, chairs. I can't remember all. We stopped for the spring for planting.

They are beautiful!!! My husband is a pen collector. Do you have a website where I could order? I would love to design a pen for him.

Those are fantastic! The 11 pens on the left in the last photo remind me of the wood that my knitting needles are made from. They're the Harmony Wood needles from Knit Picks. They're so much fun to knit with because the wood is so pretty. The pens must be fun to write with for that reason, too. :-)

"We also make the bracelet helper you can see that in the picture. Helps you put on your bracelet by yourself. (it is the long pen looking thing that has a clip on end)..."

Hmmm... back in the '70s we called those "roach clips." LOL!

I was wondering the same thing Magic but forgot to ask.LOL
I need one of those bracelet helper things.I have several bracelets that I don't wear because it's a pain to get them fastened.DH isn't much help either because he can't see to hook them and he says his fingers are too big.LOL
Both of my sons have made things for me in wood shop.One made me a goblet.The other made a shot glass.LOL Don't know why because I don't drink but the thought is what counts I guess.Are lathes expensive? I think DS#2 would enjoy doing stuff with one.

We don't have a website. Sorry. Why we gave it up is we got so overwhelmed with people wanting them it could have been a full time job. My dh already has a good paying job. This was suppose to be a hobby. LOL. Any of you could do this, promise. Easy as pie. All we did is bought a 2 Good lathes (Jet) and started googling pen making. We made mistakes at first, but it didn't take long to catch on.

Here is a link that might be useful: Video on pen making

Ya'll I promise we were making bracelet helpers and not roach clips.LOL That is soo funny for you to say that Lindsay, because when we were selling them at the festival some look like 60's hippies came by our booth. One of them made a comment like "that's so cool, they are making fancy roach clips" After that dh made a sign that said bracelet helper. LOL

Here is a link that might be useful: Bracelet helper no hippie roach clippy

Those are really neat. But I'm sure there's more to it than "they're surprisingly easy" - I watched the video!

Those pens are just beautiful. I'm glad you and your hubby enjoy working together on a hobby. I can sure see why they sold so well for you.

Wow! Your pens are beautiful! I enjoyed watching that video, but it didn't look simple to me. How long does it take to make one pen? It looks like it could be a very profitable hobby.

That is so impressive!! I've never seen handmade pens before. They're beautiful!! How nice that you and your husband do this together.

Those are really beautiful pens. I would want to buy one if you did decide to sell a few. Those are very impressive.

Helen

You and DH are both very talented--and you are very modest. I don't know that "anybody can do it". The pens are just beautiful. I prefer the wood ones that look like wood. Too cool!!

Those are great! I'm impressed!

Quite an impressive hobby. You do a great job.

Shirley

I never knew you could make your own pens. Cool!
Kathy G in MI

They are beautiful. My grandson had a lathe when he was still in school and he enjoyed making pens. He bought the wood blocks to use and also made some beautiful pens using deer antlers.

Those are so beautiful. You do very impressive work.

Linda

Wow those are beautiful...

Those are Amazing!!! Great job!

I have the same knitting needle set as Lindsey. It matches the 2nd pen from the left in the 2nd picture. The pink one in the last picture sure looks like it is plastic. We are all impressed.

Now we want to see your bowls and vase!

They are GREAT! Please let us know if you decide you want to make some to sell here!

Those are beautiful,you and dh did good.I also didn't know you could make pens from wood.TFS
Kathi

Neato!

Nice! my dh bought a big lathe a couple yrs ago, as a present to himself for a great semester and as a source of stress relief. i just rolled my eyes and smiled, i figured he deserved it and it would join the rest of the big toys he has taking up all of my garage. no cars fit in it w/all of his toys and when he's working in it, it looks like a hamster Habit Trail :-) well all he had to do was whip out a few pens for us and i was happy lol. he has since made wine cups, bowls galore of every shape and size, moulding pieces, fountain, lead and ink pens, easter eggs, vases, children's tops, a rubberband shooter/gun etc... he gets some catalogs w/ wood & composite blanks and i go thru it, putting posty markers for ea type i like lol. we always keep a few extra things made on hand for gifts. turned out to be a handy toy, messy but handy! ~ liz

How much did theysell for? They are amazing! Thanks for sharing these pictures...

Thanks everyone for you kind comments. I will pass on the comments to DH.

grandma bonnie, we actually did not make very much off of them after we bought the inner workings for the pens and wood. We were having so much fun making the pens we had to do something with them so we decided to give some away and sell some. We bought the best inner working available. We sold the smaller pens for $20.00 and the larger men's pens for $30.00, bracelet assit. for 15.00.