Blue pen, clay pen

First polymer clay pen. This stuff is much, much different from acrylics and wood. Mainly, it can’t handle the heat.

I like using friction polishes, whether it’s a wax finish or O.B.’s shine juice, and both work well with wood. The friction raises the temperature of the surface and the finish, helping it glide on, shine and cure. But polymer clay doesn’t like heat.

After baking, it’s hardened but still pliable. Which is fine for many uses, but not great for a pen which may be handled quite a bit. So it really needs a durable finish. I found out the hard way that my favorite friction polishes will not work with poly clay. Even after baking, the clay softens when it gets hot, which makes any friction finish completely impossible to apply properly. I need to use a finish that goes on at normal temperatures. After a few false starts, I was able to put a CA glue finish on it, and polish the finish pretty well. This gives the pen a hard, shiny surface that will (hopefully) stand up to use.

This was my first poly clay pen, so it’s pretty rough. In the making of it, though, I learned a lot about what works and what doesn’t, so the next pen will be even better.

So, yeah. Yesterday I created a quick log line outline for the trilogy. Today, I started the outline spreadsheet for first book. Tomorrow, I need to complete the outline and start writing. I’ve got the main characters pretty firm in my head – what their personalities are like, how they clash, and how they complement each other. There is a lot of writing that has already been done on this story – hopefully I can reuse much of it.