No Blarney – An Engraved Claddagh Wooden Pen

15Feb08

 

  I have been working on a few new patterns to engrave onto (or is it into?) my wooden pens.  I know that women really like the Claddagh and it’s romantic connotations. Men on the other hand, are less inclined to sport anything with a Claddagh design , like the ring in my jewelry box.  That started me thinking about a Claddagh that a guy wouldn’t mind being seen with. 

For starters it would have to be a nice big rugged looking pen, so I chose this cigar pen style. Next, I drew up this Claddagh design, and sized it to go about 2/3 ds of the way around the pen.  The pen clip will be placed in the 1/3 gap in the pattern. A fair amount of trial and error went into the final design. I know its only personal choice, but I like the look of a deep background, which allows the main features to stand out. It looks more like a carving than an engraving that way. I have done a fair amount of wood carving, and tried to give the background a scooped out look, as if done with a gouge.

 You can be the judge as to whether I succeeded or not.      

        

I tried the pattern in Hickory.The contrast of light wood to dark engraving looked great, but the grain led to too much variation in depth within the pattern.  Olive wood had a nice contrast without the grain issues. Another nice thing about the olive wood is that many of my pen blanks have a section with very few if any features. That leaves a nice clear area for the engraving, while at the same time having some really beautiful features on the rest of the pen. 

The picture below shows multiple views of the finished pen.

  In all modesty, I think I nailed it on this one.  What do you think? Comments are welcome.

To see more of my work, visit:

http://www.woodenpenworks.com

Filed under: Celtic, Claddagh, crafts, Holiday, Irish, laser engraving, lathe, pen, Shopping, Uncategorized, Wood, wooden pen   |  3 Comments
Tags: Celtic, Claddagh, Handmade, Irish, laser engraving, Olive Wood, pen