Meet Your Maker: Rhys Wilson, Rhys’s Pieces

(Caroline Foty's first fountain pen was a 1970s Sheaffer No Nonsense that still writes perfectly. Since she discovered pens by independent makers, she wants "one of each, please" and wants to meet all the makers. Maybe you do, too. She lives in Baltimore with pens, cats, and all kinds of fiber arts supplies.)

It’s all pens all the time for Rhys Wilson. Not only does he make pens, he works at Penchetta Pen and Knife store in Scottsdale, Arizona, the only remaining pen and stationery shop in the Phoenix area out of what used to be a handful.

Fifteen years bartending and waiting tables burned him out. “Much as that can be fun and can be lucrative, it also really kind of mentally drained me – I’m a very introverted person overall, and it really takes a lot out of me to do all that interacting.” The pen part of the store has grown exponentially thanks to the explosion of online material about pens. “It’s really fun being able to have pens be the entirety of what I do.”

Pens kind of sneaked up on him. While he loved school supply season as a kid (like most of us did), he tended to prefer fancy mechanical pencils, and had to use disposable pens at work. “I could never carry anything super nice, because periodically I had to give it to a customer and a lot of the time they would disappear.” He and his fiancée were doing crafting in their spare time, and one of the things he made was epoxy resin camping knife handles. “There would always be some extra resin left, I wanted something to do with that extra resin – it’s kind of wasteful to throw it in the trash. I stumbled across a video from another resin artist who used his dregs to make little inlay rings. When I started doing those, all I had was a little drill press and it was kind of a pain in the butt to shape and polish them on a drill press!” His fiancée’s mom bought him a mini lathe, which happened to come with a pen mandrel. “I thought, well I have this, I might as well try it, so I made a couple pen kits and fell in love.”

Wilson’s creative instincts quickly led him to feel somewhat restricted by pen kits. He began researching ways to customize kits, and “fell down the kitless pen rabbit hole.” YouTube content from Turner’s Warehouse and RJB Wood Turner facilitated his explorations. Like many makers, it wasn’t long before he began seeking ways to make more involved pens. “My favorite thing is trying new things and seeing what works and what doesn’t.”

Just because he was fairly new at the process didn’t mean he kept it plain. “My very very first kitless pen ever that I made was actually a hybrid with acrylic in the wood. So I’ve always done the slightly more complicated stuff, and I’m getting better and better at it with more experience and better tools. It’s also fun to get some of these really really cool hand poured resins and with a simple design let material speak for itself. Some of the most beautiful pens are just simple.”

Despite starting out with a resin craft, Wilson is not drawn to make his own blanks. “I have made some myself, but it’s an art form in and of itself and one that didn’t quite grab me the way the pens did. There are already so many people doing really cool blanks that I don’t necessarily feel a need to throw my hat in the game, I’m showcasing their awesome work with what I do.” His favorite materials to work with are acrylics – “They are easier to finish than some of the urethane resins, they are denser and have some of that luxe feel” – and also ebonite, which he loves for its natural, warm feel in the hand.

This perhaps explains why his favorite pen he didn’t make for himself is an ebonite Sailor King of Pen. He also loves a black ebonite pen he made that’s finished with urushi lacquer. “I was contacted by a person in Australia who asked me to make an ebonite pen that would take urushi lacquer. He said that if I made two pens and sent them to him, he would pay for one of them, then urushi the other one and send it back to me. I said YES PLEASE. This is one of my most prized possessions.” Is there a color theme here?? Not really; his first pen was a silver LAMY AL-Star.

Moving forward, Wilson wants to explore more metal work, both for aesthetic results and for feel. “I know as a maker that quality things can be lightweight, but there’s just something I find that we as humans have in our brains, that equates heft and weightiness to quality especially on slightly more expensive stuff. I think having a good heft to something really helps sell it as a good value to somebody when they first hold it.” That means saving up for a metal lathe to add to his toolkit, and exploring more metals for things like accent bands. “I’d love to be able to do titanium accent bands, there’s so much you can bring to that with color, or anodization, but it’s a very very hard material to work with. Trying to do that by hand on the wood lathe would be I think rather dangerous.”

Wilson does take pen commissions, although he has what he describes as a love/hate relationship with them. “I do really enjoy taking somebody’s idea and bringing it to life, but that can really be hard sometimes, and some folks are more particular than others about having that, call it perfection. It’s possible to get everything perfect when you’re doing things by hand, given enough time. Taking the time to get things perfect is hard. Finding where I’m willing to let small things slide has been interesting, because I can get really perfectionist with things. These are handmade objects, and there is a level of wabi-sabi that most people are willing to embrace in a handmade object.”

Wilson says he has a little bit of impostor syndrome as a fairly new maker in a community of seasoned artists. “That has actually been a huge part of working at Penchetta that has been helpful for me, being able to compare my stuff with these $2000 Visconti Homo Sapiens special editions and whatnot, seeing the level of fit and finish on pens that cost considerably more than even my most expensive pen to date.“

The most satisfying part of making pens for Wilson is “being able to take something out of my head, put it into the real world, and not just do that but have it be something that somebody could, ideally, pass down to a kid, or to a grandchild, or something like that.” That’s one of the reasons that while he enjoys making the resin pens, he loves making the more heirloom quality “functional art” pieces. “What I really like is finding those pairings of wood and resins that you may not expect, that really arrest you when you see them.”

Rhys Wilson’s work can be seen on his Instagram @rhyss_piecess_, his website Rhys’ Pieces, and maybe at the San Francisco Pen Show.

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Meet Your Maker: Gavin Hardy, Hardy Penwrights

In late 2024 the fountain pen community was shaken by the news of the sudden passing of Greg Hardy, the well-loved character behind Hardy Penwrights. But Hardy Penwrights lives on, in the hands of Greg Hardy’s son Gavin.

Gavin started working for his father after moving back from Wisconsin to northern New York, to be nearer family. “My parents were selling my childhood home so we bought it and renovated it.” Because Greg wanted to expand the business, Gavin, otherwise a fulltime musician, began working for Hardy Penwrights.

“When I was a kid, he had given me a fountain pen, you know, the plastic Sheaffer with the flat top…” (probably a Sheaffer No Nonsense) “…so I was interested in them. Senior year I needed an extra elective so I put together a calligraphy class with my dad.”

Pens took a back seat to music until Gavin returned to New York. “I never made a kit pen. My dad gave me detailed instructions on how to turn a pen, and I learned.” The shop was at Greg’s house, about a twenty minute drive in the morning. “We’d drink coffee for an hour and a half and then start our work.” Ultimately most of the shop was relocated to Gavin’s house. “He wanted to do less of the business and more metal work, which he was more interested in.”

“He gave me a crash course in soldering techniques - we did a few runs of pens where I did the clips. I wanted to make sure we were still able to offer the metal work. It was certainly educational!” Education also came from Tim Crowe of Turnt Pen Company, who lived not far away and is a blank casting specialist. “Tim gave me the setup to get started – a pressure pot, a compressor, a mold, some mica. There is more instant gratification in material casting than on the pen side.”

How does one step out from the shadow of one’s well-known parent after inheriting a thriving business? Gavin says Greg’s primary focus was “creating art. I think that’s noble and beautiful and I want to do that too, but I’m not retired!” He’s working on making some changes to the company’s lineup, to make products that are viable for shows. “I wanted a less expensive model that’s just as nice as our other models.”

The first result of this process is the Proletariat model. The pen has a satin finish instead of a glossy polish, and a laser engraved logo instead of cast silver. The sections are made from cutoffs from other projects. “I’m focusing on the Proletariat as our main production model, and simplifying what we do across the lineup. The goal is the same as it was, to produce a quality fountain pen that makes people want to use it.” Gavin is still making clips – “Maybe we’ll have one signature clip instead of a different one for every model, and vary that for a custom or limited run. I’m making it easier for one guy in a shop to keep up.”

There have already been a couple of custom pieces that have tested his mastery of the metalwork that was his father’s passion. A pen for a close family friend and neighbor has a rollstop with special significance. “She wanted something that was representative of our family, so the roll-stop had two big circles representing me and my wife in silver and bronze, and two little circles representing our kids in mokume gane which has silver and bronze swirled together.” A custom pen with a complex cap overlay of birds and leaves represents a continuation of the Hardy metal tradition.

Despite the ability to make such complex pieces, Gavin’s favorite pens that didn’t come out of the Hardy workshop are in a different style. “I have a really cool PapaJ pen. I gave him some ideas when he wanted to make rollstops, and he sent me one with his floral rollstop.” He does have one of his own making – “it’s black, it’s boring” – and then he likes “Zebra clicky pens! I like the slim fine ones.”

Things are still settling out with the business, website, and show schedules. It’s taking some time to get the business fully transferred to his name, and updating the website is a pending task. He only envisions attending two shows in 2026, and maybe adding one or two more next year. “My goal is three to six shows a year. I just can’t keep up the schedule my dad had.”

Even doing it all on his own now, he still enjoys the work. “There are things I don’t enjoy, but that’s any job. When I’m doing a run of thirty pens, that gets a little hairy, but I enjoy audiobooks and podcasts.” Unlike many makers, this musician doesn’t listen to music in the shop. “I find myself thinking about the music too much.” DND live-play podcasts are more his speed.

Gavin has no trouble articulating what he likes best about making pens. “There’s a sense of accomplishment and pride in seeing other people’s reactions to something you made. There’s the community it hooks you up with – people who are interesting, kind, and supportive. And there’s the flexibility of working for myself – I have a four year old, a two year old, and a wife with a demanding job.”

The legacy of Hardy Penwrights also provides a deep sense of meaning. “I’m continuing what I was doing with my dad, keeping that part of our relationship alive. And it’s possibly something I can also share with my kids.”

Gavin Hardy’s work can be seen on his Instagram @hardypenwrights, the website at Hardy Penwrights, and at shows in Chicago and DC.

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Meet Your Maker: Jonathon Brooks, Carolina Pen Company

(Caroline Foty's first fountain pen was a 1970s Sheaffer No Nonsense that still writes perfectly. Since she discovered pens by independent makers, she wants "one of each, please" and wants to meet all the makers. Maybe you do, too. She lives in Baltimore with pens, cats, and all kinds of fiber arts supplies.)

You may have wondered – how did Jonathon Brooks actually get started in the pen world? If you guessed date night, you win.

“It was a date night with Shea. My grandfather did a lot of woodworking - he passed away when I was ten, but I remember him doing lathe work. Shea and I did a weekend lesson on making kit pens.” The teacher of the lessons was also a pastor and ultimately officiated when date nights progressed to a wedding.

Brooks wasn’t an artist, or an obsessive writer, but he had a rollerball pen he used all through high school. “I found one I really loved, and I kept it.” With pen turning know-how came a new point of view on that pen. “I built my own pen based on it. I was between jobs - I saw a challenge in pen making, and decided to pursue it.” At the time (2008), kit pens used store bought acrylic and wood blanks. “Every blank looked the same. I got bored with them within a year.” Only a few people were casting pen materials at that time, so he taught himself to cast, beginning with polyester resin. When he posted a pen from his material on a forum on the International Association of Penturners website, he was bombarded with questions about where the material came from. Within months, he was able to take the pen and materials business full-time, which dovetailed nicely with the decision to become a stay at home dad.

His first customers weren’t other pen makers, but online vendors like Exotic Blanks. “I got in at the forefront of the maker boom. Custom pens weren’t really a thing - Brian Gray (Edison) was someone everybody looked up to.” He quickly decided, however, to sell blanks directly, and he also switched from polyester to alumilite due to how brittle and fragile polyester was.

It was only then that he found out about fountain pens and what they could do. “Pen making ultimately meant making a fountain pen. I made myself use them, because I'm someone who wants to know their product inside and out, so I had to start using a fountain pen. I quickly fell in love.”

If you say “Primary Manipulation” in front of a pen person, they will know exactly what you mean. Brooks named his famous series of resin colors for the process by which they are made. “It’s primary colors being manipulated. There isn’t green in Primary Manipulation, it’s from translucent blue and yellow overlapping.” Constructing such a resin involves knowing, from experience, things like how dye is going to sink through the tube during curing, and how much mixing is enough.

A video Brooks made with David “Figboot” Parker provided insight into the process involved in creating a resin based on a photograph. But Brooks also draws on the element of chance. “New colors come from how disorganized I am in my garage. I have sixty mica powders in stacked jars, and I never put them back in the same place, so I’m constantly seeing new combinations, and then thinking what pouring techniques and contrast colors I should use.” Even mistakes lead to unexpected (or, perhaps, unwanted) success. The “Pastel Primary Manipulation” blanks that became a minor sensation a few years ago were the result of a batch of PM in which not enough drops of dye were added. “It was a mistake I didn’t want to repeat! If I don’t like something, I don’t write the formula down, and then I may have to recreate it later.”

Brooks pronounces himself “obsessed with finding new techniques and design ideas.” “When I’m cooking I’ll think about work, what colors and pouring techniques to use. No matter what I’m doing, the work brain is always churning.”

The brain can, however, be mightier than the hand. Blank making can lead to repetitive motion injuries. “I’m able to break up the day to do blanks half the day and then pens. It’s an advantage of being full-time.” Even worse than the mixing motions is the twisting needed to tighten down the lids of the pressure pots. He spent some time trying to engineer a solution to the pain the process caused to his thumb, and ended up with standard nuts and a low torque impact wrench. When Tim Crowe of Turnt Pen Company was experiencing elbow problems from the same tasks, this solution also gave him some relief.

Repetitive motion stress has caused Brooks to almost entirely quit doing urushi work. “When I was first attending pen shows, the Japanese fountain pens drew my attention and I wanted to know more about urushi. I spent a year doing research – at the time (2014-15) there was almost nothing in English, so I was doing a copy paste of Japanese to Google Translate.” The sanding of tiny areas of pen with tiny pieces of sandpaper was extremely hard on the hands. The cost of gold nibs also became too expensive to justify. While he’s not sensitive to the oils of poison ivy and oak in urushi lacquer, others in his household are allergic, so there was a constant care to avoid contamination with the lacquers. The oils can also come back to the surface with the warming of a user’s hands, especially if the curing process of a pen has been rushed. “I sent a pen for a grind, and the nibmeister proved to be allergic.” Ultimately, “if I did urushi I didn’t have time for anything else.”

As if there was not enough going on in the garage, Brooks has a laser engraver. “That was my COVID phase. I was paying way too much for engraved nibs. And once you show you can do something, someone else will want it. I do still offer custom nib engraving. But lasers are much more affordable now.”

To observers of the fountain pen universe over the last several years, one noticeable trend has been the use by pen “corporations” of hand-cast resins. “Franklin Christoph was one of the first. They would come to my table at shows to discuss options, and the resulting pens would go on their prototype table.” He’s been working for eight years with Leonardo, even before he knew he was. “I got an Instagram message from a friend who said, ‘Check out this Leonardo pen, it looks like someone is copying your stuff.’ It was Calico Koi. I messaged the Leonardo Instagram asking where the material came from, and Salvatore Matrone responded, ‘I bought it from you two years ago.’ That was before Leonardo even existed. At that point I said, OK so do you want any more?” These pens were such a success that other companies began contacting him for resins, and retailers like Atlas, Pen Chalet, and Pen Boutique arranged exclusive pens made by companies from Brooks resins – which are still made by one guy in his garage. “I can do 200 blanks in a day for a corporate order if I have to. I have thirteen pressure pots.” The success of these pens has led pen companies to expand their searches for unique resins from other makers, with Turnt Pen Company, Mckenzie Penworks, and Papa J Studios also creating resins for pens from the larger companies. Brooks himself is working on a set of blanks based on Van Gogh paintings for a Pen Chalet exclusive series, with the specific request that he try to find a way to make the resins reflect the texture of the brush work in the paint. “That’s a very specific direction – I don’t always get that. Usually I’ll get a photo or something else, and they trust me.”

Fans of pens from hand-cast resins know that two pens made from the same blank recipe can look very different, which complicates the process of commissioning a pen because of the variable results. Brooks still does a few commissions, although the wait is somewhat long, and he attempts to mitigate the complexity by making three pens so that the commissioner can choose which one looks most like what they envisioned. A benefit of this approach is that it builds his show inventory.

What pens does Brooks have and love, that were made by other people? He loves his Newton Prospectors, and a pen made for him by Eric Sands (Atelier Lusso) out of a PM material. Not just pens: “I also have a commissioned art print from Shawn Newton, that he was selling to fund his initial equipment purchase, it’s from a photo of Shea jumping one of her horses. It’s hanging over my fireplace.”

With the boom in fountain pens generally, and independent maker pens in particular, Brooks has become an important mentor for others getting started in pen turning, blank casting, and even the setup of CNC machines for the production of pen parts. He’s a familiar presence at just about every pen show held between February and August, with his table of pens dumped out like a treasure chest. The pen models in his lineup (named after cities in his home state of South Carolina) were inspired by some aspect of a pen he admires, or something customers requested: the conical ends of the Charleston, his first model, are a reflection of the shape of a Nakaya Piccolo; the grip section of the Aiken is based on that of a Parker Duofold. People wanted a cigar shape, or a pocket pen, or something with a clip. The Convert is a pen with two sets of threads inside the section so you can screw in either a rollerball cone or a fountain pen nib unit. “Convert has a dual meaning – you can convert the pen, but also maybe it will convert the one in every crowd who isn’t into fountain pens.” Most recently he’s created the Downtown, to use up some of his vintage celluloid material, adding a clip, and a cap band made from a contrasting material.

Like many independent pen makers, Brooks harbors a little bit of surprise that things have become what they are. “It’s mind boggling how it’s as good now as it was at the beginning.” The explosion of hand-poured resins, and their spread from independent makers to traditional pen companies, has made pen collecting today a different world than it was thirty years ago. There’s a case to be made that it all started in a garage in South Carolina.

Jonathon Brooks’ work can be seen … almost everywhere! On Instagram @carolinapencompany, CarolinaPenCompany.com, and at most pen shows that happen in the US between California in February and San Francisco in August, as well as at Yoseka Stationery Fest.

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Enjoy reading The Pen Addict? Then consider becoming a member to receive additional weekly content, giveaways, and discounts in The Pen Addict shop. Plus, you support me and the site directly, for which I am very grateful.

Membership starts at just $5/month, with a discounted annual option available. To find out more about membership click here and join us!