As I write this, I’m close to half way through engraving a batch of wooden pen boxes for Bryn Jones of Prestige Pens, based near Caernarfon.

Bryn is a wood turner who I met at the Wales Spring Fair in Llandudno. As well as wooden bowls, he makes fabulous wooden pens, turned by hand from a wide variety of native and exotic woods. He sells them at craft events, through shops in North Wales and through his Prestige Pens web site.

Much of the wood he uses has dramatic grain patterns, so every pen is a one-off.

To give his pens the finishing touch, he offers his customers a wooden box to keep them in, engraved with his logo.  He seems to be doing well, judging by the number of boxes he’s using!

Laser engraving is a flexible way to mark wooden boxes like these, with the ability to prepare batches as and when needed, or to do small runs of bespoke designs if required.

It’s frustrating how sometimes you can struggle with something for ages and make no progress.  If you are able to leave it for a while before trying again, if you’re lucky, everything might click into place.

Cardiff Castle is such a prominent Cardiff building that quite a few people have asked why I haven’t included it in the range of candle holders.

I’ve tried it from a new viewpoint and I’m very pleased with the result.

During the Christmas markets, I was surprised how many people asked me if I had a wolf design.  They have probably been extinct in Britain since the seventeenth century, are still remembered fondly by at least a few people.  I didn’t have one then, but I do now.

Also available in acrylic.

* ‘Wolf-month’ or ‘Wolf-monath’

The Saxon name for January, because “people are wont always in that month to be in more danger of being devoured by wolves than in any other.” (Verstegan.)

These days, the risk is pretty similar every month.