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What's On Sale
This Month:
For our Newsletter Subscribers only, take an additional 20% off of the already sale priced Dymondwood. Use the coupon code "DYM20" at checkout.
__________ The Polypearl of the month is Emerald Isle and priced as low as $1.99 per blank. __________ The Inlay Blanks of the month are the new Double Box Joint and Dragon Tango which are sale priced at $20.00 each. __________ The Abranet 10 piece sanding set is just $6.95 per set. __________ The Trident Pen Kit is priced as low as $3.60 per kit. __________ The St. Charles Pen Kit is as low as $2.00 per kit __________ Dymondwood is still on sale until it is cleared out of stock. Call for Dymondwood scrap box prices and availability __________ The unlableled Exotic Pen Blank Pack of 32 Blanks is priced at $25.00 for one set and $23.50 each for two or more sets. The sale on these items will expire on 31 March 2013 Click "here" to go to the specials page on our website.
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Happy Saint Patrick's Day. Spring is finally
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Dink Says, "Laying around with my brothers and of course my new sock monkey, courtesy of Santa. Life is good!"
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arriving this month and I know that I am ready for it. Only a few more cold days until the weather will be perfect for a couple of months. No AC or heat required, just open the windows and enjoy the fresh air.
Just a reminder, be sure to move your clocks forward one hour on Saturday night before you go to bed. That would be March 9th. You would not want to be an hour late on Sunday morning, March 10th.
As far as I know, this time warping back and forth is only done in the USA. I hear that the idea came from an old Native American Indian Chief. In the wintertime he wanted to keep his feet warm so he cut a foot off of his blanket at the top and sewed it on at the bottom to cover his feet. But when summer came, he did not like to breath the damp night air so he cut the foot off of the bottom and sewed it back onto the top of the blanket to cover his head. Problems solved!
Arizona is the only state that does not observe Daylight Savings Time except on the Hopi Indian Reservation where it is still used. That must be where the Indian Chief was from.
This is going to be a very busy month for us. It is the beginning of the spring craft show rush. In addition, Tracey and I will be out of town attending a wood carving seminar from March 10th until the evening of March 15th. We will be back in the office to answer email, and return your phone calls on Monday March 18th.
During our absence, Ryan and Curtis will be here to process and ship out your orders. The phone calls will be forwarded to Pam who is pretty good at answering most questions. For the few questions which she is unable to satisfy, she will contact us at the end of the day to get the solutions for your queries. If she does not answer the phone, please leave her a message and she will get back to you as soon as she can.
Tracey's two cents worth: I will no longer be accepting requests for custom inlay work. I've found that the amount of time and energy spent to create them can't really be recovered through the sale of them. The requests for custom inlays are generally from someone who only wants one or two.
In order to break even on the time, energy and materials spent to refine the design, I'd have to charge far more for the artwork than most would be willing to pay.
I am always happy to add your ideas to my inlay wish list. When I get one that gets asked for enough times then I'll put the work into creating it and get it out on the website. Many of my ideas just come to me on a whim or I'll have seen a show or book and spotted something that gets me to thinking.
I don't do team or company logos or other copyrighted logos even if you have a letter because I can then only sell to you, that would be considered custom work. There is a lot of talk in the community that it can be done if 25% of the logo is changed. I've decided to just steer clear of doing them so I don't have to keep logs and copies and charts of everything that I've changed.
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TECH TALK
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I have had a few inquiries about how to make your own pen blanks from polyester resin and how to go about getting it to set up properly and not be a week long sticky mess. How to get it to dissolve color mediums and how much dye or colorant to use and what is the best to use. Many folks would love to make their own custom color combinations but are
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Making Polyester
Resin Pen Blanks
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afraid to take the plunge.
With nice weather just around the corner I though I would make a little video on how to make your own blanks and what some of the little tricks are to get a successful end product.
It is not that difficult but you will need a well ventilated area with the temperature to be above sixty degrees and preferably closer to seventy degrees for the best final results. Another good tip is to refrain from pouring resin when it is raining or when the relative humidity is over seventy percent.
South Florida folks, take your chances.
I will try to cover everything in the video. If there is something you would like to know that I do not cover, then please send me an email and ask. I'll do my best to answer or let you know where you can get the right answer.
The color recipes mixed and sold here at Wood-N-Whimsies are proprietary, you are on your own for mixing and matching colors as you wish. Happy casting.
Email me at tim.nicholas@woodnwhimsies.com.
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WHAT'S NEW
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 Tracey has made a couple of new inlay blanks. The first is what we call the Double Box Joint Blank. I worked with her on this as I wanted something for the woodworker. As you can see in the picture, the blank emulates a fancy box that the corners have been joined with double box joints. There are three joint pieces which are spaced out all the way around the blank. She can make the pieces in any two color combinations you want as long as we have the color in stock. Basic colors are not a problem. You can look at the other blanks on the website to see the array of colors and wood species available.
He second creation is her Opposing Dragons called Dragon Tango. These guys are really cool. As  with all of her blanks, the pieces will already be assembled and secured with rubber bands. The dragons will already have a black powder coated tube installed. All you have to do is center up the tube and set everything with thin CA glue. Be sure to trim the tube to the length that you need for the kit you are assembling after it is glued up. Not all Sierra/Monet/Gatsby/Mesa/Wall Street tubes are the exact same length.
If you purchase any of her blanks, be sure to open and inspect the blank in a clean area with preferably a smooth white surface. Some pieces will at times become dislodged during shipping and if you open the contained in a dirty area your tiny dust particle sized pieces will be lost.
 Curtis has a new Poly Pearl blank which is made especially for the month of march in honor of Saint Patrick. It is called Emerald Isle and is a beautiful mix of green, orange and white. The blanks, as do all of his blanks, have a wonderfully deep pearlescent shimmer which makes them really stand out in a crowd.
He has also made a set of solid colors which also  have a pearlescent effect added. They are red, orange, green, blue, yellow, white, black and purple. These are great for adding accent pieces to your projects or mixing up to make school colors.
We have received our first shipment of Spectraply and it is available in a variety of colors and sizes. Spectraply is a laminate product that is made from start to finish right here in the USA. The colors are absolutely brilliant and are extremely consistent throughout the blank and from one dye lot to the next. We will be adding more colors and color combinations over the next few months so check back to see what's new.
We are offering several sizes besides pen blanks and bottle stoppers. Check the website for the various sizes available in each color. Not all sizes are offered for every color as of yet. If the size you want is not listed then we do not have it.
If you want the blanks in angle cuts, you will have to buy a wider blank and then cut out your blanks to the angle you desire, everything we sell is straight cut to keep your final cost as low as possible. The blanks are available in sizes up to 3" X 3" X 12". From pens to pepper mills.
Due to the size of some of the blanks, we have added a surcharge to them to cover the higher shipping cost. As always, we will only charge you what it actually cost to send your order and any money paid over the actual shipping cost will be refunded to you.
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COMING SOON
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I am diligently working on the final clips and snips of the Enlisted Surface Warfare Specialist (ESWS) pin for a new wooden inlay blank. It has given me some problems but I am about to get everything ironed out. Each new inlay design requires hours and hours of editing with Corel Draw. And just when I think everything is OK and hand it over to Tracey for her refinement, guess what? Yep, another several hours of editing due to her nit-pickyness.
Well, that's what it takes to get it right. Tracey has several new ideas and has also started on a few more new inlay ideas. Be sure to check the Inlay Page every few days or so to see what she has come up with next.
Curtis has been busy out in the shop making some test plugs for some new Poly Pearl blank color combinations. As in the What's New box above, you can see that he has a great new one for this month.
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Thanks for reading and I'll be back next month with some more information which I hope will be of some small yet significant use to you.
Tim Nicholas
Wood-N-Whimsies
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