Sunday, March 10, 2013

Penopoly Hand Painted Pens

Two years ago I decided to make a "Maki'e" type pen that was affordable for the average American. Soon after, we began production on these beautiful pens painted by local artist.

At one time I had seven different artist who were trying their hand at painting pens for Penopoly, but we landed on just two who not only new how to paint miniature scenes, but could paint most motifs that they were called on to paint. Denise Kendig, who resides in Martinez, California and Caron Dunn in Davis, California.

Once we figured out how long it would take to paint these works of art, figure out the style of pen body and determine the nib we would use, we landed on the name Mini Magnums and Magnums for the larger size pen. On average these pens take approximately seven hours to paint all the fine details.

Mini Magnums are great for most peoples hands. Size is important for control and comfort as well as  the amount of ink put to the paper. These pens are made from ivory celluloid and are light weight, easy to post and have a 14k bock nib.

I spent many hours perfecting the clear-coating process to protect the paint. Each pen is coated three times with a clear-coat that is used for high end car paint. This coating does not scratch, peal, crack and has UV ray protection. All pens are LE of 10 pieces.

Here are some examples of the fine delicate art of hand painted Penopoly pens. We also make pens upon request like animals, people, landscape, cartoon characters, solar space, flowers. and much more.




  Hand painted Snake Pen, Denise Kendig (Artist)
 Silver snake clip
 Snake pen box tooled leather
 American Indian Feather, Denise Kendig (Artist)
Ivory celluloid bronze clip
 Native American
 The Raven by Denise Kendig (Artist)
The Raven, leather hand tooled box
 Bronze feather clip and Greek key bands, fine feather hand painted on the cap top.

 Gold leaf with hand painted Cherry Blossoms, bronze clip of foliage. Denise Kendig (Artist)
 Cherry Blossom on celluloid
 Hand engraved leather box, Cherry Blossom pen
 The Solar System depicting Polaris, THE NORTH STAR Denise Kendig (Artist)
Each pen has a meteorite in the top of the cap.
 14k bock nib

 Tulip pen, Denise Kendig (Artist)

 Stain glass with Koi fish band Denise Kendig (Artist)
 Koi fish top of cap on stain glass pen.
Hand painted Medieval pen Denise Kendig (Artist)
 Medieval
 Magnum pen "Floridian Deco" by Caron Dunn (Artist)
 Bronze deco feather clip, Caron Dunn (Artist)

 Art Deco Floridian, Caron Dunn, (Artist)

Art work by Caron Dunn and Denise Kendig
Art work by Caron Dunn and Denise Kendig
Photography by Kandace Photography






Thursday, February 28, 2013

Penopoly Dinner Party, LA 2013

[Penopoly Pens] Los Angeles Pen Show Dinner Party  
-Photos by Loren Smith                      

We had a terrific time Saturday night after the pen show. We enjoyed dinner at my mom, Marilyn's, house. Above is a photo of John Sabel, Executive Vice President of Disney Motion Pictures. John was signing people's name in a special flourishing technique, crazy cool writing! John is using a pen from Toccia that I fashioned with an 1800s nib with super-flex and feed. It's now his favorite pen.

Photo op with John Sabel


Wine and writing go so well together.

Carmen Rivera and husband Tim. carmenriverapens.com
Detlef and Cindy Bittner checking out John's beautiful writing technique. Bittner fine writing Carmel, California.
And of course, the lady who made this fine evening happen, my mom Marilyn.
Pendelton Brown playing the piano before dinner.
My mom's theme for the dinner was "Pens of the World for all Occasions". All the tables represented different themes.



Scott Franklin from Franklin- Christoph fine writing


Chinese New Year table.
South America guests Areil Kulock and wife.

Me and Mom
Postcard perfect!
Lisa Miyako, and Jim Rouse from Maryland
John Sabel, Disney