Birch Pen with Turquoise Inlay

A customer asked me to make a pen from a tree branch he had, pretty sure it was Birch. He had the branch for about a year and it was only about an inch thick, so it was pretty dry. I picked a section that had a couple of branch shoots on it for added aesthetic and stabilized it in my vacuum chamber.

Once I started to turn the cap a small hole developed where the branch shoot had been, so I decided to fill the hole in with crushed turquoise. The dark spot on the body of the pen is where the other shoot had been. Overall I like the light and dark contrast a lot :)

Finished with lots of CA then buffed with a flannel wheel and a cotton wheel.

Thanks for looking.

-- John