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68.5: Utilitarian Pen Holder – Winners Announced

Posted on Jul 1, 2019 by in Magnet Limit, No Limit, Results Posted

1st Place: Cody

The winner of the Pen Holder contest is Cody, with his build modeled after a flower with very handy petals. The catch-all basket on top is a nice touch, and our judges thought so as well. Good job, Cody, you get $100 for 1st place.

2nd Place: DBOI

Coming in 2nd place, we’ve got DBOI with the coat hanger pen holder. Utilizing the magnetic tips of the pens is pretty ingenious. I am seriously considering implementing this one at the office. DBOI is awarded $70 for 2nd place.

3rd Place: Bastian

Bastian takes 3rd place with the middle ages fight scene pen holder. “I did not want to build a normal and boring pen holder…” said Bastian, and he succeeded. For 3rd place, Bastian gets $50.

4th Place: wifikiller3

In 4th place, we have wifikiller3 who just stumbled into this contest and the top 4. ” I didn’t think I was going to enter this one, but I was taking a “magnet break” at work and saw a cube I had made. Then I realized that a scaled up version of this cube could actually make a cool pen holder.” You never know when inspiration is going to hit you. 4th place awards wifikiller3 $40.

5th Place: NealisNeal

In 5th place we have NealisNeal and his assortment of hollowed out diagonal cubes. Some good prop work as well, demonstrating that his pen holder can also hold an eraser, not to mention the only ruler we’ve seen. Everyone else apparently draws perfectly straight lines all the time. 5th place gets Neal $35.

6th Place: Mathnetism

In 6th place we have Mathnetism riding that same hollowed diagonal cube vibe as NealisNeal, but with a full spiral of cube sizes that also provides pen holding areas in the negative space. Mathnetism receives $30 for 6th place.

7th Place: Ben Cannon

7th place goes to Ben Cannon for his rainbow color coordinated pen holder. Fun, bright, practical. Good to see that Rainbow Neoballs set going to good use! Ben gets $25 for 7th place.

8th Place: Frankie

In 8th place we have Frankie going above and beyond with 2 holders and he created paper as well. That’s a list you don’t want crumpled in your pocket. 8th place awards Frankie with $22.50.

9th Place: Frederick48

Last but not least, we have Frederick48 in 9th place. Nice, simple design with some LED internal lighting as well. Frederick48 gets $20 for 9th place.

Good job, everyone! Hopefully we’ve provided people with practical and fun new ways to be organized at their desk. If you haven’t already, click on the images to check out the original size. And keep in mind that contests held here are independent of the Zen Gallery. Magnet sculptors can always submit photos to gallery.zenmagnets.com to win magnets as well. Spectators, keep your eyes peeled for the next contest, because you choose the winners. Contest Winners, we’ll email you your prizes soon.


Submissions are officially closed for the Pen Holder contest. We have a decent amount of photos for everyone to check out. Check the thumbnails below for full res glory, or jump to the voting form and peep all of the submissions from there as well.

The requirements for this contest were to create a desktop pen holder that was functional and was made entirely of 5mm magnet spheres. There’s no limit to the number of magnets one could use, and all brands and colors accepted.

Judges, remember that this contest is a photography contest just as much as it is a magnet sculpture contest, overall aesthetic does matter. $300 in prizes is up for grabs. Voting booth closes July 7, 2019.

Vote Here