Oh my god I am absolutely shattered. We left the house at 9am this morning, got into London, had some food and made our way to the London pen meetup at the Bloomsbury Tavern. Met some very friendly people and got to play with some nice pens along with showing off my own. Good fun was had by all. Just got home a tad shy of 8pm, looong day and my legs hurt. Great fun though, I have utterly forgotten the names real or internet of the people that were there because I forgot to write them down and my brain sucks.

Oh and before I go on any further I wanted to say thank you to all those that put in a bid on the pen I made for u/newtonpens charity auction on his site. It ended up going for $100 which is a fantastic result. So thank you if you put in a bid and thank you if you spent the time to go and take a look.

Two things have happened this week which have been great. My speed at creating pens has gone up noticeably. I have managed to make 2 full pens and get through the first 3^rd of the 3^rd pen. So, from the last one to the first. [This](https://i.imgur.com/Yj3jqJQ.jpg) is the beginnings of the pen I am making for my sisters 40^th, I really hope she likes it when it is done. It is the same series of materials as the [teal](https://i.imgur.com/m1nZ6xL.jpg) one I made for my wife.

The second one I completed was actually for a paying client. They chose the shape and the material up to and including which swirls in the blank they wanted to feature on the final pen. I am very proud of this one, there is [zero step](https://i.imgur.com/Bu4cCSr.jpg) between the cap and the barrel. And when you do take the cap off there is a [minimal step](https://i.imgur.com/JirxPH0.jpg) from the barrel down to the section. It has turned out very nicely.

The first pen I did this week though was to do with the challenge I set myself. Could I go back and kick the arse of the bugbear which has been annoying me. Can I work with polyester? It has been bugging me no end. I wanted to know whether I could use the material that I shied away from when I started turning pens. Could I overcome my fear of breaking an incredibly brittle material when it is worked? The answer is [yes](https://i.imgur.com/Bn3n5Tv.jpg), I beat it. I vanquished that demon and sent it back to hiding. Now that is done I can never use that bloody material again with a clear mind and get on with learning other skills. Next on the docket is learning to make my own sections and then it will be adding things like metal bands and combining materials.