The incredible Dragon by Grayson Tighe

I’ve known Canadian pen maker Grayson Tighe for a numbers of years (though we’ve never met), and I’ve followed his career almost since its inception. What I’ve always found most impressive is his quest to challenge himself—and his fans—with new materials and art-quality designs. If you are familiar with his work, you already know that he uses such non-traditional materials as titanium, meteorite, stainless steel damascus, mokumé-gané, and coral, as well as sterling silver, 18-karat gold and precious stones. His latest one-of-a-kind creation, crafted from stainless steel, is the Dragon Desk Pen. It was a collaborative effort with artisan Jose de Braga, who is responsible for much of the detailed figural work. According to Tighe, stainless steel is difficult to work with, so difficult, he says, “I probably won’t use it again…it’s hard on the tools.” The upside of the material is that the pen, while amazingly hefty in appearance, is relatively light and meant to be written with, according to Tighe. The base is embellished with crystal, creating an elegantly cool counterpoint to the powerful figure of the dragon that spans the length of the pen. This incredible piece took over 200 hours to complete and is now in the hands of a European collector.