TLDR – Someone on my team at Oracle made a pen for everyone on the team as an end of the year gift. I rate the Pen as in the top 10 of gifts I’ve received due to it being handmade. – Thanks Janet and Barry
Random Import Charges
I work on an international team in Asia, Europe, and the Americas. In January, in a few of the team slack channels, people started talking about VAT / Import charges for something. Then someone posted a picture of a box but did not say what was in it; A Mystery! The import charges I heard about were from nothing to 20 pounds to 8000 rupees at the top. Eventually, I was added a Slack channel about the creation of what was in the box. A few weeks later the box finally showed up on my door. Irish Manager, Tomasz, had the packages shipped to him as he wanted to cover the import fees; Thanks. He then forwarded them off to the team here. Everyone else on the team received theirs the next day – it took over a week to arrive in Grianan Fidh for me. I might be the last to receive the gift?
The Pen
The Pen insides are comprised of an Executive Rollerball Magnetic Pen from Penn State Industries, Founded in Philadelphia in 1936. The majestic looking outside of the pen is hand-mixed acrylic in Oracle company colours. Legend has it Barry and Janet agreed on the guts and colors back in September of 2023. The kits and materials arrived at Barry’s Seattle home in mid-October and he set to work straight away creating these masterpieces.
71 days after the kits arrived at Barry’s house his labors were completed. The pens were packaged and addressed and the shipping started. January 16th without a knock at the door mine finally arrived leaned against the front door. Michelle Noticed it opening the door for something. The kids show interest in making their own – we might work that out if the interest remains. Chatting with Barry and asking permission to post these images we found a supplier for Pen kits in Ireland with an actual showroom; The Carpentry Store in Naas. – Sensing a weekend trip in our near future.
The work to make and thought that went into these gifts is, to me, what makes them so special. Mixing the material, vacuum pumping to remove bubbles, letting it set, sanding, drilling, spinning, shaping, polishing, assembly – all of the work. Impressive – Thank you, Janet and Barry
The pictures of the process
With permission from the creator, I post the below pictures of the process.
