#330

Now Sold

Cammo Acrylic with Gun Metal Finish

Whenever I start to make a pen from an acrylic blank I always remember the negative points. Acrylic turning is messy, I really try to clear every last scrap of it up; it can also be smelly; the sharp little chips get everywhere and it can blunt the turning chisels really quickly. By the time the pen shape is turned and I start the messier job of wet sanding through about fifteen different grades I'm usually trying to convince myself that maybe it's better to just concentrate on turning wooden pens.

Then the final grades of sanding and polishing start to reveal something special and I really like acrylic again... until the next time.

We'd now been through the tunnel at Harecastle, stopped for a few days at Church Lawton, Stopped for an overnight break at Rode Heath and were close to Middlewich where we were going to be trading at the Folk And Boat Festival. With a couple of washing loads to do and a good few pens to turn we decided to moor up in the middle of nowhere at Bridge 164 a few miles (and half a dozen locks) south of Middlewich to do some catching up. Pen #330 was made on Tuesday 16th June 2015

The weather was lovely, Dudley tired himself out running through the long grass at the side of the little used towpath the washing dried quickly in the sunny breeze and chips of oak, elm, Bubinga, Sycamore, shavings from NB Birchils and Dane, and colourful acrylics floated around the back deck of the boat. Just what we needed and our first night away from civilisation for a good while. Even the rattle of combines in the next field and lorries along the A553 from Sandbach couldn't dull our moods.