This beaded fountain pen was inspired by a baby puff adder we found dead on the road some time back. It had the most exquisite patterning. (Only a pen-maker sees a dead snake and thinks, oooh, that would make a great colour combination!) The tiny Miyuki beads resemble scales and created a lovely, supple feel to the piece while I was busy bead-weaving, so this prompted the name.

(In case you are wondering, I have in fact felt what a real, live snake’s skin feels like. When we were kids our dad built a cage and gave us a Skaapsteker – a non-venemous fairly docile local species of snake. We named her Twiggy. She was beautiful.)

The bead-weaving design is in a deliberately natural pattern with irregular patches and several colours of brown, from dark treacle around the outer edges, and two shades of amber inside each patch or splotch. (Is there a scientific name for a splotch?) The colours between the splotches are two shades of silvery-gold.

Di did the bead-weaving on this pen, using a total of 1 512 tiny Miyuki Delica #11 beads (and a magnifier); Dave developed the new model and made the pen, including the bronze rings; and Lana mixed the resins: the body of the pen is made of a custom resin in an espresso colour, and she also mixed the Bugatti-red resin for the finials and grip section. This pen comes with a gold-plated clip.