Steve Nelson turns bleacher wood from SIU arena into pens
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Eldorado Elementary School Principal Steve Nelson has a side job with Crossroad Creations, the craft business he and his wife, Mary, created.
For seven years Nelson has been making pens, experimenting with different types of wood, deer antlers and even coal.
He takes his wood or antler, cuts them into lengths, drills a hole through them and sticks a Cross ink refill in. Then he turns them on his lathe, sands them, polishes them and adds decorative bands with steel wool.
Pen making is something of an Eldorado School District administration hobby.
"Mr. (Gary) Siebert, the superintendent, is the one who taught me how to make these pens. He was the one who got me into this very rewarding hobby," Nelson said.
Last winter he got into the nostalgia business by turning wood from the Duff-Kingston Gym chair seats that were being replaced into decorative pens.
Nelson sold about 100 Duff-Kingston pens and decided he probably could capitalize on selling wood from the replacement of bleachers from Southern Illinois University's Area.
The university is Nelson's alma mater. He was raised in rural Carbondale, his parents, Toby and Rachel, were educators who still live in Carbondale and Nelson has built a solar-powered weekend cabin in that area.
Between his personal connection to the university and his knowledge that many fellow alumni would be interested, Nelson set about trying to get some wood from the area for his pens.
"I called over there and they didn't know where the wood was, it was gone. I called the alumni association and nobody knew so then I called the president's office. They called the physical plant and told me who the contractor was," Nelson said.
He found each Douglas fir board can yield 60 pens -- if he is careful with his lathe and tools. The Douglas fir is a soft wood.
"You've got to be so careful with these and you have to keep your tools so sharp. Out of 100 pens I'll have maybe 20 blow apart," Nelson said.
So, out of each board he can expect 50 pens and expect 10 of them to break on the lathe, but, by now, he has become used to working with the wood. Today he received an order for his 98th pen.
"This is exciting right now. I had a call from somebody in DeSoto I haven't talked to in years," Nelson said.
He used to teach in DeSoto.
Another friend from St. Louis, Mo., called him he had not spoken to in 30 years.
After some advertising and publicity he has received orders from Florida, California and St. Louis, Mo.
Nelson's wife, Mary, makes greeting cards for Crossroad Creations involving pressed leaves or photos and bags of rice to be heated for muscle relaxation. The two sell their goods at the Southern Illinois Artisans Shop in Whittington and at various art festivals throughout Southern Illinois.
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DeNeal receives e-mail at mailto:bdeneal@yourclearwave.com.</li>
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