#361

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Orange Spirit Stained Sycamore and Chrome Ballpoint Twist Pen

SYCAMORE - Acer pseudoplatanu

Sycamore is a creamy white colour with a silky lustre, and is easy to work. With an oil finish, Sycamore can turn a light tan colour. This stained pen is finished with acrylic spray.

I started this range of pens as my display needed a splash of colour and it is not always practical to turn acrylic pens on the canal side. The debris from wooden turned pens causes no harm at all and blows around with all the leaves and stove wood chippings. The acrylic waste is obviously more chemical based and as such I am only happy making them on wind free days when I can collect and bin as much as possible.

Even though Whilton isn't the prettiest mooring spot we had a great couple of days here just because the weather was so warm and sunny. It's a lovely part of the Grand Union Canal heading south, once you leave the motorway behind, through the Northamptonshire countryside and sleepy honey stoned villages. One of our favourite villages is Bugbrooke, it's such a welcoming village. We last stopped here a couple of years back - here's a post I wrote about it on our cruising blog - Bugbrooke.

After a brief stop in Bugbrooke we carried on south via Gayton Junction (and a pre festival water top up) to Blisworth in readiness of our next festival. We knew Blisworth festival could get busy if the weather is nice but in all honesty that doesn't always translate to great pen sales. Big crowds on narrow towpaths can get pushed along with the flow and someone wanting to stop and browse may be the other side of the seven deep wall of eyes. Add to that hot children wanting icecreams and dads looking for beer tents and it could all have gone either way for us. 

Luckily Saturday matched our best ever days trading and Sunday set a new target that may take many years to beat. We (including Dudley) finished the weekend tired and very pleased with ourselves.

So what makes Blisworth our favourite free festival - 

• It has to be about the best organised. The army of local volunteers (many of whom are both boaters and villagers) worked tirelessly all year planning the event and then go into overdrive from sunrise to sunset making sure everything runs smoothly.
• The whole village takes part, its not a village festival or canal festival it is both in harmony.
• The three distinct areas, the festival field, canal market and historic boats and the village its self mean there is something for everyone from dog shows to world war II re-enactments to free boat trips and open gardens interspersed with live music and cream teas in churches.
• It's FREE, no car parking charges for the 58000 visitors and no entry fee to the main events field. 

In fact we had such a good time meeting people that I didn't make many pens at the actual event.

Pen #361 was made here on the 7th August 2015