Dip Pen Stand
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    In Acrylic, Other Projects
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    Dip Pen Stand

    Recently, I got a new fountain pen as a gift, bought a new Jacques Herbin glass dip pen, and have been playing with different inks. While waiting on materials for another project, I thought I would try making a stand to keep the glass dip pen safe on my desk.

    I envisioned something that would echo the glass of the pen and ink bottles as well as the curves. The green glass acrylic seemed ideal for this, as it is a ringer for actual glass visually.

    I started by modeling an outline of the pen in Inkscape and used that to figure out the rest of the design.

    Layers of glued up MDF made a great bending form for the curved piece.

    Using acrylic cement frequently results in unsightly blemishes on finished pieces, and can be easy to break. So, I designed this with M3 bolts for a mechanical connection between the curved and base pieces. I ended up with press-fit nuts shored up with a little CA glue, which seems to be strong enough and avoids the unpredictability of acrylic cement flow.

    There is also a 2-minute build video:

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    Engraved Retro 51 Pens and Modified Hex Boxes
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    In Celtic Art, Other Projects
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    Engraved Retro 51 Pens and Modified Hex Boxes

    I ran out of time and energy for making some holiday gifts this year. I really like the Retro 51 Tornado pens, and thought laser engraving some with the recipients’ names would make for fine gifts. It really worked out well, including my test piece with the Evermore ambigram.

    I also made some funky hex boxes for the pens in their original tubes to serve as gift wrapping. I wish I had taken the time to manually adjust the kearning/line spacing for the names on the fronts of the boxes. I was rushing to get them done, and was twitchy about burning through too much of my stash of this favorite discontinued violet stock.

    The pattern for the box is in the Subscriber Archive, if you want to make one.

    Three lacquered metal pens stand on their flat back ends. The one in the center front is purple, flanked by two in dark blue. The purple pen is engraved with the Evermore ambigram. The blue pens are engraved with Evangeline and Brendan. A metal pen lacquered in purple and engraved with the Evermore ambigram lies diagonally on a surface of fibrous off-white handmade paper. The wide end of the pen in the lower left is knurled and has a dot of the purple lacquer on the end. Close-up of the Evermore ambigram engraving on the end of a purple lacquered metal pen. Close-up of the end of a purple Retro 51 Classic Lacquer pen engraved with the name Cailyn, lying on top of a purple box engraved with the same name. Four long purple boxes. The ends are hexagonal. The sides extending from each hexagonal face are long triangles that come to a point at the vertices of the hexagon on the opposite end. The top hexagonal face is engraved with an off-center spiral in light grey. There are names engraved on the front faces: Michael, Brendan, Cailyn, and Evie. View from the front with the boxes standing upright. Four long purple boxes. The ends are hexagonal. The sides extending from each hexagonal face are long triangles that come to a point at the vertices of the hexagon on the opposite end. The top hexagonal face is engraved with an off-center spiral in light grey. There are names engraved on the front faces: Michael, Brendan, Cailyn, and Evie. View from the front-right with the boxes standing upright. Four long purple boxes. The ends are hexagonal. The sides extending from each hexagonal face are long triangles that come to a point at the vertices of the hexagon on the opposite end. The top hexagonal face is engraved with an off-center spiral in light grey. There are names engraved on the front faces: Michael, Brendan, Cailyn, and Evie. View from above-front, looking down, with the boxes standing upright. Four long purple boxes. The ends are hexagonal. The sides extending from each hexagonal face are long triangles that come to a point at the vertices of the hexagon on the opposite end. The top hexagonal face is engraved with an off-center spiral in light grey. There are names engraved on the front faces: Michael, Brendan, Cailyn, and Evie. View of the lids with the boxes lying on their sides. Cardboard jig with pen-shaped cutouts, one contains a metallic avocado green Retro 51 Tornado pen. A circular piece stacked on a hexagonal piece sits on top of the jig to serve as a focus point.
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    Chonk Gift Box with Conforming Inserts
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    In Celtic Art, Other Projects
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    Chonk Gift Box with Conforming Inserts

    I have seen some images and videos of flat boxes that incorporate a piece with a pattern cut into it that conforms to the contents to hold it in place. The pattern looked pretty easy to replicate for cutting with a laser or CNC cutting machine, and Deirdre Beth in the Glowforge community forum saved me the trouble.

    I needed a simpler gift box for one of the D20 chonks than the fancy wooden ones I made. It occurred to me that two conforming pieces would do a great job of holding a chonk in place for shipping.

    The box is my quick reproduction of a standard design like I use for shipping the dice reliquaries, cut from my dwindling stash of Violet Curious Skin cover stock. I thought a Celtic knot on the faces of the box would be nice. Because I didn’t want an hour-long laser job engraving them, I used a hatch fill and scored them instead. I put the Everrmore ambigram on the bottom as a maker’s mark.

    The inserts are cut from the Silver Curious Metallics card stock. I wanted something light that would make the contents stand out.

    This works every bit as well as I had hoped. Once ensconced, no amount of shaking seems to cause any movement of the die inside at all. It should be great for shipping, and make for a fun presentation.

    A 2.5"/63mm cubic purple box sits on a pearlescent white surface. A Celtic hatch-filled knotwork design adorns the visible face. The top is open. Inside is a silver-colored paper insert with an intricately cut lattice that allows it to conform to the shape of the object that rests on it. There is currently nothing there, and the insert is flat and unbent. The two silver lattice-cut inserts for the chonk box. These are squares with tabs folded down on each edge. A pattern of lines that almost seems to be a stylized representation of cubes are cut into the square surface. This pattern allows the surface to conform to anything pressed into it. A 2.5"/63mm cubic purple box sits on a pearlescent white surface. A Celtic hatch-filled knotwork design adorns the visible face. The top is open. Inside is a silver-colored paper insert with an intricately cut lattice that allows it to conform to the shape of the object that rests on it. There is currently nothing there, but the lattice is deformed from holding a roughly spherical object. A 2.5"/63mm cubic purple box sits on a pearlescent white surface. A Celtic hatch-filled knotwork design adorns the visible face. The top is open. Inside a purple and yellow 20-sided die sits on a silver-colored paper insert with an intricately cut lattice that allows it to conform to the shape of the die. A 2.5"/63mm cubic purple box sits on a pearlescent white surface. A Celtic hatch-filled knotwork design adorns the visible face. The top is open. Inside is a silver-colored paper insert with an intricately cut lattice that allows it to conform to the shape of the object beneath it (a large 20-sided die). A 2.5"/63mm cubic purple box sits on a pearlescent white surface. A Celtic hatch-filled knotwork design adorns each face. A small semi-circle is cut from the top front to make the box easier to open. Three-quarter top-down view. A 2.5"/63mm cubic purple box sits on a pearlescent white surface. A Celtic hatch-filled knotwork design adorns each face except the bottom. On the bottom is engraved an ambigram that reads evermore in two orientations.

    2-minute assembly video:

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    Butterfly OA/Kirigami Pop Up Card
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    In Celtic Art, Origamic Architecture
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    Butterfly OA/Kirigami Pop Up Card

    I made these pop up origamic architecture/kirigami butterflies for the 2024-2025 holiday season. The butterflies are two pieces, laser-cut from the last of the Ice Gold stock (now discontinued). Alas the wonderful Curious Skin cobalt blue stock I used for the backing cards is also no longer available. I liked being able to accentuate the contrast between the blue and white with the extra cutouts, the flower on the inside and the spiral on the outside.

    Somewhat stylized kirigami pop up pearlescent white paper butterfly with Celtic spiral designs cut into the wings. There is a flower design cut into the base, which allows the cobalt blue backing card to show through for the petals. Three-quarters above right view. Somewhat stylized kirigami pop up pearlescent white paper butterfly with Celtic spiral designs cut into the wings. There is a flower design cut into the base, which allows the cobalt blue backing card to show through for the petals. Three-quarters above right view (higher up). Somewhat stylized kirigami pop up pearlescent white paper butterfly with Celtic spiral designs cut into the wings. There is a flower design cut into the base, which allows the cobalt blue backing card to show through for the petals. Top-down view. A collection of somewhat stylized kirigami pop up pearlescent white paper butterfly cards arranged side-by-side. The butterflies have Celtic spiral designs cut into the wingss. There is a flower design cut into the base, which allows the cobalt blue backing card to show through for the petals. Three-quarters above left view. A collection of somewhat stylized kirigami pop up pearlescent white paper butterfly cards arranged side-by-side. The butterflies have Celtic spiral designs cut into the wingss. There is a flower design cut into the base, which allows the cobalt blue backing card to show through for the petals. Three-quarters above left view. A collection of somewhat stylized kirigami pop up pearlescent white paper butterfly cards arranged side-by-side. The butterflies have Celtic spiral designs cut into the wingss. There is a flower design cut into the base, which allows the cobalt blue backing card to show through for the petals. Three-quarters above left view. A collection of somewhat stylized kirigami pop up pearlescent white paper butterfly cards arranged side-by-side. The butterflies have Celtic spiral designs cut into the wingss. There is a flower design cut into the base, which allows the cobalt blue backing card to show through for the petals. Three-quarters above left view. A collection of somewhat stylized kirigami pop up pearlescent white paper butterfly cards arranged side-by-side. The butterflies have Celtic spiral designs cut into the wingss. There is a flower design cut into the base, which allows the cobalt blue backing card to show through for the petals. Above and almost head-on view. Closed cobalt blue card with a spiral cut out in the upper right corner showing the white paper inside. There are also little triangles in the corners where the corners of the interior pieces come through to mount them.

    There is also a short video (1:50m) video showing assembly of a card and some rotating views:

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