Big news: I got my first review! And it is a great one. 🙂 The video will be posted on the feedback page.

Even with the above new I am still really struggling quite badly at the moment and I don’t know why, I have been at work a week, which is something I am not handling very well mentally. Being in a big empty lab and being the only one there tends to leave my brain heading down dark places, I hate my brain. Luckily I love pen making so I can try to distract myself by thinking about that instead.

* Pen making

So it seems I have [fallen](https://i.imgur.com/5vkfUQG.jpg) for the blank making hard and this week I have been doing more of that then actually making pens. I have just shipped out a set of pens to a client in the states and then one to someone else in the Netherlands.

I have worked out I can get around 50 blanks from a 1 gallon set of bottles. Not too shabby, it allows my wife and I to go a [little nuts](https://i.imgur.com/sAVvrXP.jpg). However we haven’t been writing down any of [the recipes](https://i.imgur.com/SUCdDXf.jpg), so we are kind of playing. The results have been good though.

We did have a bit of a mess up though. Ended up with some [bendy blanks](https://i.imgur.com/xl09KmA.jpg) which sucks, but an error rate of 6% isn’t too bad so far considering we are both novices in this game. I ordered a 2 gallon set which will be arriving Monday. I am going to also order a bunch more mica powder samples, only 10g of each colour but it will be enough. Once that is done I plan to do some experimentation on repeatability of mixes. I figure if I can repeat the look of a blank multiple times I can then make this into part of the eventual brand of blanks we come up with for the future.

I had a go at making a sort of [pocket pen](https://i.imgur.com/5vkfUQG.jpg) this week. It posts, it’s about 134mm in length capped and a bit shorter uncapped. I plan to make some more over the weekend but I will share these next week. Hopefully my brain will be in a better place next week. I did manage to make another pen last week too, I got it [all polished up](https://i.imgur.com/Ytt77Hx.jpg) and made it in one go. Managed to sell it too, which is a bonus.

As usual feel free to give feedback or suggestions in the comments. Please take care of yourselves and your loved ones and stay safe.