Hand-crafted pen maker Treasured Pens has joined the ranks of firms to receive an endorsement through entrepreneur Theo Paphitis’s Small Business Sunday initiative on Twitter.

Each week, the former TV Dragons’ Den panellist invites small firms to tweet him with a description of their business, and he then re-tweets his favourites.

Treasured Pens, based at Stradbroke, near Eye, was set up by couple Phillip Eve and Stacey Lear after they moved to Suffolk three years ago.

Phil decided to turn his woodturning hobby into a business, and now produdes a range of fountain, rollerball and ballpoint pens from woods and acrylics.

Many of the pens are makde from local oak, about 400 years old, sourced from an old barn in nearby Weybread.

After being selected by Mr Paphitis, whose businesses include the stationery firm Ryman, homewares specialist Robert Dyas and lingerie retailer Boux Avenue, Stacey tweeted: “When we got the first congratulations we were so excited! My partner said to me: “You’ll never guess who has retweeted us!

“Within the first hour we had added 100-plus followers and it’s still growing. We’ve had sales this morning at a faster rate than ever before and we couldn’t be happier. Thank you Theo!”

Earlier this year, Phillip and Stacey told how they had received a letter of thanks from musician Rick Wakeman, praising the quality of a pen he purchased during a visit to the Hoxne Artisan Market, where they sell their pens each month.