Elephant Pen

Recently, due to the gracious kindness of others, we received a monetary wedding anniversary gift which we turned into a nice digital camera! While I am still getting the hang of taking quality pics with it I gots real antsy 'bout bloggin', see? So I decided to try a little whimsy and take some test shots of my Elephant Pen and due a little write up about it. So ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, may I present yo you, the Elephant Pen!

A few years ago, while at a local Arts and Craft Fair, my lovely wife and I were looking around at all the great arts and craft stuff when we came upon a booth where the man running said booth made things out of, all things, plumbers putty. This was a self hardening gray putty that he used by adding paint to to it to color it. He also added depth to some objects, like the elephant's face, by painting the surface of the putty once dry. As you can see in the close up of the elephant's face the artist did not sand down the putty once hardened. All more the charm. The eyes of the elephant are google eyes, the kind sold in craft stores. Sort of gives the fellow a certain charm about him, don't you think?

The artist, a local man, used, as most polymer clay artists due, a standard Bic round stick pen as the basis for the pen. You can see the brand name Bic right on the tip of the pen. It's a good thing
that he did because the original refill died of old age and lack of use some time ago! So let that be a lesson to you of the younger generation. Use it or lose it! I think the original ink color was blue, but the Ole Elephant writes black now! Anyway he covered the plastic barrel in putty, sort of a tanish woodish-looking color, and shaped it over the pen body, which he also failed to sand down. Maybe he was short on sand paper having spent all his money on plumber's putty and all those pretty colors of paint!

There is a lanyard loop on the back end of the pen. That's it there in bright yellow. Just above the violet bead thingy that's just above the bright hot pint coil thingy. Anyway I tried to wear it as a necklace at one time but people kept staring at me so I stopped. It doesn't do ones fragile ego any good to have people gawk at you. So I ask my lovely wife to stop! Thankfully she did. For whatever reason, some artistic thing I guess, the artist put a tiny green stone in a bed of bright blue putty right in the middle of the pen! That's it down below. Pretty, huh? I have no idea what the stone is, so don't ask.

As you can also see by the lanyard hole, that the artist wasn't too careful with the paint from the colored putty. Also I think that he must have been using his finger print ridge detail as some sort of texture tool, judging by the lovely texture on the blue mound holding the green stone! What do you think?

One of the nicest pieces on the pen is the leaf. A banana leaf, perhaps? Who knows, seeing the whimsy of the artist it could be a banana leaf! Anyway, there it is over there on the right, sort of added as an after though kinda thing. OK, OK! I had a better shot of it but I cropped it out of the pic and didn't save it! Whadda 'cpect? It's a new thing for me to be shooting and editing my own pics! I'm used to using pics from JetPens! Give me a break will ya?... What's that?... You're not complaining?!... Eh, yea! As I was saying, nice leaf, huh?

How does it write? It's a Bic for cryin' out loud! It writes like a Bic! Ya wanna know what a Bic writes like then spend a buck at WalMart for a dozen and find out for yourself! Do I have to do everything for ya?

Well I hope that you have enjoyed my little whimsy! The pics look better on the blog than they did during editing! So maybe I'm a little better at taking pics than I thought, hey? And as a final note, despite my criticism of the artists technique, The Elephant pen really is a gem and it was the only thing the man had that I could afford!