You're All Write

I'm borrowing the catch phrase from Riley and Mary's Valentine's this year for today's title.  We wanted to share a little fun our kids have been able to have learning something new.  We have a friend here who makes pens...yes, makes them.  He turns pieces of wood or acrylic, adds the mechanical pieces needed for a pen, does some sanding and polishing work, and voila--a beautiful handmade pen.

Well, he offered to teach the kids how to make their own pens.  So far Cory, Mary and Riley have each made at least one pen.  Lucy hasn't made hers quite yet (she's still a little nervous, but he assures us that with a little help from him she'll be able to make one too).

Here are some pictures from the initial instruction session

John helping Cory get started on a piece of wood

Lucy's turn--safety first with the goggles!

Riley take a turn turning the wood

I don't know what they're all looking at so closely, but it must be fascinating

Lucy got tired of working at the lathe, so they put her on coloring duty--the mechanical pieces of the pen that go inside need to be colored with a sharpie to match the color of the pen

After having some difficulties with the wood we were using, they began making this black acrylic pen

Sanding and polishing

Lucy practices twisting it open

Ted's pen--the first pen they made they gave to him.

One of the pens Cory made at a later date was with some drift wood from Lake Barcis that Riley and Ted swam out to get for one of these projects.  How cool is that?

Here are the current finished projects we have--awesome, no?