Arden Pen Co — Hand-Turned Pens, A Growing Passion
It started a couple of years ago now, on travels through Namibia, watching a local carpenter turn rough camelthorn wood into something beautiful in his small workshop. That encounter sparked what's become a proper passion — the art of hand-turning pens from exotic and meaningful timbers — and, more recently, the birth of Arden Pen Co.
I'm a member of the Guild of Master Craftsmen and the International Association of Penturners (IAP), and between the two I've had access to an exceptional community of makers — technical tutorials, material guidance, and the kind of honest feedback that only comes from people who've made every mistake themselves first. That support has helped take the pen side of things from a hobby into something I'm genuinely proud to put my name to.
What draws me to penturning is the chance to work with woods — and increasingly other materials — that carry real stories. Through my photography travels worldwide, I source timber from remarkable places: Irish bog oak preserved for millennia, Jerusalem olive from the Holy Land, Himalayan yew rescued from a Bhutanese firewood pile, apple wood from the historic Fulham Palace gardens. More recently, that's grown to include fordite — layered automotive paint, decades in the making, rescued rather than scrapped — and now stabilised burls paired with aluminium components I machine myself for a more contemporary, torpedo-profile pen. Each piece connects its owner to a specific place, a piece of history, a story worth telling.
These aren't mass-produced objects. Every Arden Pen Co pen is individually hand-turned, worked with real attention to the material's own character, and finished to bring out its natural beauty. They're built to be used daily, to pick up their own patina over years of handling, and to become trusted companions for writing and thinking.
Hand-turned pens complement my photography beautifully — both demand patience with process, real attention to materials and composition, and a commitment to quality over speed. They sit at exactly the same intersection as my photography does: craftsmanship, storytelling, and a connection to place.
I'm still learning something new on every pen — that never really stops, and I hope it never does — but with the IAP and Guild communities behind me, a growing range of materials to work with, and a lot more hours at the lathe under my belt, the Arden Pen Co collection has become a genuinely significant part of what I create: small objects with meaningful weight, functional beauty, and stories worth telling.
Member, Guild of Master Craftsmen Member, International Association of Penturners
Arden Pen Co — Each pen a story, each story worth telling.
