We recently connected with Kevin Peterson and have shared our conversation below.

Kevin, appreciate you joining us today. One of our favorite things to hear about is stories around the nicest thing someone has done for someone else – what’s the nicest thing someone has ever done for you?

Last November, my wife and I had the most heartwarming experience as a craft show vendor. The holiday event benefited a preschool in Apex, NC. We are so thankful to the show’s organizers for giving us such a wonderful opportunity and for the fond memories that we’ll always treasure. They offered free professional pictures with the most amazing Victorian looking Santa who was so good with kids of ALL ages. Santa won the hearts of thrilled adults as he worked his way through the vendor tables, allowing us to take our pictures with him holding one of our products. It was the perfect holiday fodder for our website. The adults were more excited to see him than the many scared children, whose screams filled the room and whose tears rolled down their chubby cheeks. Who is this strange old man who comes around once a year, with a white beard, and who wears glasses, odd clothing, and a stocking cap on his head. This man looks different than the guy depicted on Coca Cola cans and who hangs-out at the mall with his Mrs.

When Santa made his way to our table, he looked over our merchandise and mentioned that he once had a very nice pen, but he lost it. Santa told us that he appreciated Kevin’s fine craftsmanship and asked us where we are from. We said Durham. He told us that he travels to Durham, NC two days a week to volunteer at the VA Medical Center. Most VA hospital volunteers are veterans themselves.

This Santa’s kind, gentle, and sincere soul touched our hearts in such a magical and inspirational way. He was the epitome of everything good in people … our hopes, dreams, compassion, laughter, making people smile, bringing joy, and helping a stranger all wrapped-up in one human being. I handed my wife, Cece, a Bolt Action pen. She slid it into a red velvet drawstring bag, and then made her way onto the stage where Santa was sitting for photos. Cece sat next to Santa all snuggled in on the bench donned with Christmas pillows, thanked him for being such a special person, and gave him the red velvet bag containing the pen to make-up for the nice one that he had lost. Santa opened the bag, looked at the pen, and told her that she was going to make him cry. My wife was going to make Santa cry! Cece slipped her arm around him, gave him a bit of a squeeze hug, and told him not to make her cry. Sometimes the greater gift is the feeling of giving rather than that of receiving. Santa, thank you for making us realize the true meaning of the season. Merry Christmas Santa.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I am a retired IT Manager as of March 2023. I devote much of my time enjoying my favorite hobbies, woodturning and cooking on my Kamado Joe smoker.

In 2008 I decided that I needed a new hobby, so I took a “Pen Turning for Beginners” class at Woodcraft in Raleigh, NC. I’m mostly self-taught and have learned valuable tips by watching YouTube videos, reading blogs, and attending woodturning webinars. I enjoyed the creative process of turning wood and acrylics on my lathe as gifts so much that my wife and I decided to start a small seasonal business called NC Pens. It’s a wonderful way to share my talents with others while funding my hobby’s tools. Our garage always seems to have a never-ending supply of saw dust and curly acrylic ribbons! I purchase hardware kits, wood, and acrylics from several suppliers. I take a wood or acrylic blank, insert and glue-in a metal tube, turn it on a lathe using a chisel, smooth it out using several grades of sandpaper, apply a finish, and then do the assembly by pressing the hardware onto the turned barrel.

My turnings are made from exotic and domestic woods, Maker’s Mark barrel staves, Bethlehem olive wood, as well as the contemporary look and vibrant colors offered by acrylics. I makes items that we call functional art including several styles of pens, mechanical pencils, salt/pepper mills, keychain/bottle openers, smartphone stands, pizza cutters, bottle stoppers, and dessert spoons. Our specialty wood items (bourbon barrel staves and Bethlehem olive wood) come with Certificates of Authenticity. All the items that we sell come in a lovely velvet drawstring bag. The Maker’s Mark signature look is to hand-dip their bottles into red wax. We tell our customers that we can’t dip our turnings into red wax, so we only place items made from Maker’s Mark barrel staves into a special red velvet drawstring bag. We are the only vendor that we are aware of that makes and sells smartphone stands. Our customers love them, I can’t make enough of them, and it’s our hottest selling product. It’s a cool little gadget with a stylus tip. It provides a hands-free way for propping-up your smartphone in portrait or landscape mode. The device has a unique adjustable clamping mechanism with a notch to securely lock your smartphone in place.

Some hardware kit instructions are not very helpful, so I rely on trial and error mixed with experience when making new items. I never buy just one hardware kit in case something goes wrong, especially for gifts and special orders. Losses from wood blow outs, hitting a knot, chips, and splits are always disappointing but happen occasionally. For me, a bad day at turning has always been better than a day at the office. I love being retired.

I took one bowl turning class and that was enough for me. While talking to other woodworkers, I’ve found that pen and handle turners usually don’t make bowls and vice versa because the tools, supplies, and finishes used are different. Each craft requires a specialized skill set. Many woodworkers don’t like turning acrylics, they want to see that saw dust. Some acrylics are very brittle and chip easily. The key to turning acrylics is adjusting the lathe speed and knowing which resin types work best for how aggressive the woodworker cuts, scrapes, and shaves with the chisel. My finishing style is very shiny, polished, and smooth rather than rustic. Inlay pens take the most time and patience to make. I assemble teeny tiny inlay pieces that fit together like a jigsaw puzzle with tweezers prior to gluing, turning, sanding, applying a thin Cyanoacrylate (CA) glue as a sealant, one final sanding, and then polishing. This is why inlay pens are expensive.

My wife, Cece, helps with craft show event registration, social media marketing, and website content. Getting into juried shows is very competitive, but we are proud that we’ve been accepted into several. It says something about the quality of my craftsmanship and her creative photographs. Running a small business is indeed a team effort.

Selling my turnings at craft show events allows me to share my talents with others. Pens are a personal choice and all about the look, feel, balance, and flow of ink. We love the excitement of our customers when they purchase that unique gift for someone they care about. And yes, we feel that buying yourself that “I gotta have it item” is still a gift.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

Not knowing what the turned item is going to look like until it is finished with a sealant. What a piece of wood or acrylic looks like on the outside isn’t necessarily what it looks like on the inside. For example, I was once given a white piece of wood. To my surprise, it was orange inside. Michelangelo said “The sculpture is already complete within the marble block, before I start my work. It is already there. I just have to chisel away the superfluous material.” Woodturners also feel that they are just chiseling away the extras. What’s inside has always been there, you’re just exposing it.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

Sometimes you buy hardware kits thinking that an item will sell well, but then it doesn’t. There’s been years when pizza cutters were a hot seller, and other years where there weren’t buyers. How do you recover? First, try marking down the price. If that doesn’t work, use that item as a donation raffle item at craft sale events. It’s always a good thing to support a worthy cause. Sometimes it just takes holding onto an item for a few years until the right buyer comes along.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://ncpens.com/
• Instagram: @ncpens
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NCPens

Image Credits
Product images taken by Cece Peterson.