Draw Coffee

April 30, 2012

Not too long ago, Joyce Tombran-Tink got into hand-turning pens on a wood lathe. Joyce happens to be my mother-in-law, and it quickly became evident to those of us around her that she has a natural talent when it comes to working a wood lathe.

Joyce has turned some incredible pens over this past year, and uses unique materials in her work. She seeks out rare and exquisite materials to turn into pens – any where from a simple curly maple wood, to a block of green Jade from Tibet, to a rare, fossilized mammoth tusk excavated from Siberia. It’s become a bit of a running joke, because it’s not uncommon to hear her say “I want to turn that.” You never know what she might turn into a pen next.

Recently, she approached me about doodling on some pen blanks she had turned. She turned the wood and gave them to me to draw on – once finished she put them back on the lathe to finish with a few layers of acrylic, and topped them off with the pen fittings. THey came out pretty nice.

Thanks to Joyce for thinking of me – be sure to look for her work online in the near future. Check out the pictures below, including a really nice bowl she finished last week.

April 21, 2012

I’m in the beginning stages of what could turn out to be an extremely fun and fulfilling project. My mother-in-law is a wizard on a wood lathe, and has made it her hobby to turn pens and bowls out of anything she can find. She’ll make pens out of anything from a normal piece of oak, to a nice piece of ebony, all the way up to a fossilized wooly mammoth tusk.

She approached me and asked if I would doodle on some of her pen blanks she recently turned. Tonight, I made my first attempt and am relatively happy with the results. A bit sloppy and busy, but I learned some things and am excited to work on some more of these.

Who knows, maybe she’ll turn me a handle for an espresso tamper.