The Pen Makers Boat: #528 Now Sold

Purple Heart and Chrome Ballpoint Twist Pen

PURPLE HEART - Peltogyne

When freshly cut the heartwood of Purple heart is a dull grayish/purplish brown. Upon exposure the wood becomes a deeper eggplant purple. With further age and exposure to UV light, the wood becomes a dark brown with a hint of purple. This colour-shift can be slowed and minimized by not leaving the pen in direct sunlight for too long.

Sometimes called Amaranth, this colourful Latin American hardwood is tremendously popular for furniture and other designs that call for a unique splash of colour. In addition to its colouration, Purple heart has excellent strength properties, and can be used in applications where strength is important—a wood for both form and function.

Purple Heart is considered to have energies within the wood are strongly biased towards female. Most woods have much more even male and female aspects. Purple heart is a considered quite a spiritual wood. It enhances energy dealing with creativity and knowledge. One of the best woods when dealing with spiritual healing and health issues, purple heart would be especially useful in eradicating the negative energies that create strife in the home.

Pen #528 Was made at Fazeley Junction Just outside Tamworth on 15th May 2016

The journey from above Shadehouse Lock at Fradley Junction to Fazeley Junction an dour next trading destination was done in one hit. It's certainly not a long way, about 5ish hours but the weather was against us for the first few hours. The volunteer lock keepers had arrived and were quiet in their soggy waterproofs so at least the couple of locks we had to negotiate were quick and simple, then it was a right hand turn through a swing bridge and keep our heads down out of the drizzle.

About an hour outside Fazeley, just passing the industrial estates on the edge of Tamworth the sun started to come out and dry up all the rain. We carried on past a few early traders and turned (winded) the boat ready to take our place on our allocated mooring space. It wouldn't be the last time we'd move though. There's always one isn't there? Someone was digging their heels in, not happy with either their mooring place or the curve of the towpath. It's not easy to trade on the wobbly bits but someone has got to and the mooring plan is drawn up at random and emailed to us in advance so we can easily chose not to attend if it's a problem.

Whilst Debbie had walked (hiked) into town I moved the boat one final time and started catching up with the increasing pen turning list I had given myself. It was a great market and lovely to see so many happy people visiting from the locality and farther afield. Hopefully the local pub will get on board next year and maybe get a band and a BBQ organised and there is plenty of space for a few local charity stalls too. I can easily see this turning into the Fazeley Junction Festival in the future.